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QUICK garbanzo soup

I've made this recipie with precooked beans (i.e., the giant lot I made on Tuesday) which is the reason I'm asking y'all to use canned beans. Cooking your own is always best, but we're looking for speed here.

1 lb canned garbanzo beans, drained
1 can chopped tomato (if using fresh, don't bother to peel and seed it)
1 medium onion, chopped
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon sesame seed
1 teaspoon canola, peanut, or safflower oil (neutral, and can take high temps)
3 cups water (this is a thick-ish soup)
Curry leaves (if available)
Fresh chiles, chopped (use your favourite)

Heat oil over high heat in a wide, shallow pan. Sprinkle in cumin. When you hear the cumin popping (about 5 - 10 seconds, if the oil is hot), add in sesame seeds. When the sesame seeds pop, toss in the curry leaves (if available) and the diced onion. Drop down the heat to medium high, and sprinkle in turmeric, and a little bit of salt. Satuee onions until soft (about a minute). Bring back the heat to high, and add in the can of tomatoes. Stir around vigorously for about 3 - 5 minutes (you'll see the tomatoes breaking down a little -- this is a good thing). Add the garbanzo beans. When coated with the tomatoes, add the water. Add the ground up chiles (fresh or dried). When water comes up to a boil, you're done!

Serve over brown rice, or with your favourite short pasta, or asian style noodles.

Variations

For a creamier texture:
- Strain out some of the beans from the soup at the end, and blend them in a blender with a little bit of the soup water.
- Add a tablespoon of tahini at the end, and stir through.

For heartier soup:
- Add a pound of frozen vegetables along with the garbanzos.
- After the onions soften, add two tablespoons of tomato paste, and cook for a minute or two.

If you notice a tinny flavour in the tomatoes that you buy, add 1/2 capful of vanilla extract when you add in the tomatoes.

Black olive and truffle oil hummus

1 lb chickpeas cooked and drained
1 can black olives, chopped
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1/4 cup crushed garlic
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tsp White truffle oil
1/4 cup tahini
Splash of lemon
Generous pinch of salt
Chili powder to taste (1/4 tsp)
Chopped parsley

Saute chickpeas in olive oil until lightly browned. Add cumin powder and crushed garlic, and toss through until combined. Blend in food processor until smooth with tahini, lemon, all the olive oil in the pan, salt, and chili powder. When smooth, remove from food processor and blend through the olives (1/2 of the can) and the white truffle oil. Put hummus on a large platter, so that it's 1 inch thick. Make 3 slight indentations that span the length of the hummus in the center. Drizzle olive oil into the middle one, and sprinkle a mixture of parsley and chopped olives. VERY lightly sprinkle chili powder over the olive/parsley mixture.

Roasted red pepper hummus

1 lb chickpeas cooked and drained
1 whole red pepper, roasted in the oven and peeled and seeded and chopped fine
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 tsp cumin powder
1/4 cup tahini
1/4 cup crushed garlic
Splash of lemon
Salt
Chopped parsley

Cook chickpeas in olive oil along with the cumin powder and garlic, and roast until lightly browned. Blend in food processor with tahini and lemon and salt and garlic. When smooth, gently combine with roasted red pepper. Spread on large platter so that hummus is 1 inch thick, and sprinkle with chopped parsley, and drizzle lightly with olive oil.

Plain hummus

1 lb chickpeas cooked and drained
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup tahini
Splash of lime
Salt
Chopped parsley

Blend chickpeas in food processor with all ingredients but the parsley. When smooth, set on a platter. Sprinkle with parsley and lightly drizzle with olive oil.

This is just a personal preference, but when I make my hummus, I prefer to serve the pita bread toasted lightly. It makes for a really nice textural variation.

Dino Salad

This is a salad of the sort that I used to take with me for my lunch at school, because it's really filling (it's the one I mentioned in my voicemail)! I have expanded this to use as a party thing, because it makes a beautiful, dramatic presentation on the table. You can either make this a layered salad (stack the layers from the bottom up), or toss everything through and get it well-mixed. Both make for interesting presentations. I personally prefer to chop up the lettuces and all vegetables to the size of my mouth, so t hat there's no ... awkward moments with errant dressing or people struggling with the thing. To make it easy on you, I've listed the ingredients in the order that I stack them. It's best to stack them on a very large platter, but if serving tossed, it looks best in a large salad bowl. I've included a dressing, because it's complementary to the salad.

1 lb romaine lettuce
1/4 lb mixed field greens
1/4 lb watercress
2 lbs garbanzo beans
1 bunch of cilantro, chopped finely
1 bunch of flat leaf parsley, chopped fine
1 lb roma or plum tomatoes, cut into quarters lengthwise, then sliced
1 large English cucumber, sliced in half lengthwise, then sliced thin
1/4 lb chopped olives
2 hass avocadoes, sliced thin, and arranged around the edges (or placed onto each serving if the salad is tossed)

Dressing
1 cup lemon juice
1 tablespoon tahini
2 tablespoons olive oi
1 tablespoon red pepper flakes (optional)
1 teaspoon salt (or more, if desired)
1 teaspoon fresh ground pepper

Combine in a blender on high.

(Coincidentally, I also had the Dino Sammich that I'd take with me on those four and five hour road trips mom and dad loved to dash off on. It was roasted eggplant, roasted zuchhini, roasted mushrooms, olive oil, red wine vinegar, sea salt, and a drizzle of white truffle oil. I'd slice up all the vegetables into thin strips. Then, I'd toss together the roasted vegetables with the other stuff, hollow out a nice crusty baguette, and lay the veggies inside. Excellent travel food.)

Dry cooked garbanzo

I love this either mooshed up, and spread onto my bread when I make sandwiches, or served with some good basmati rice. It's also excellent with any indian flat breads. It's a large-ish quantity, because there's really no sense in using that many different spices, and have this tiny little dish of food to show for it. Ground spices will not work in leiu of the whole ones in this particular recipie. I'm using cooked garbanzo for this, so you may substitute canned. There are a lot of ingredients, so I've grouped them together for easy reference in the steps. This dish works well in nonstick cookware, so if you have it, use it.

2 lbs garbanzo beans
whole spices
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/2 teaspoon black mustard seeds
2 teaspoons whole coriander seeds, crushed (if you don't have a mortar and pestle, just throw the seeds into a ziplock bag, and run a rolling pin over them until they're crushed)
ground spices
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon red chilie powder
aromatics
5 cloves of garlic, minced
1 large onion, chopped fine
2 stalks of curry leaves (if available)
fresh herbs
1 bunch of cilantro, chopped finely
oils
2 tablespoons peanut, canola, or safflower oil
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil

Heat both oils in a wok, or large, shallow pan on high heat. Add the whole spices. When the whole spices begin to pop, wait 10 more seconds, and add all of the aromatics. Satuee until the onions are soft. Add the turmeric (one of the ground spices) and 1 tsp salt, and stir through. Cook for another minute. Add the beans. Toss gently, until all the beans are yellow. Cook for five more minutes. Add chile powder. Toss through until thoroughly combined. Remove from the heat, and sprinkle on the chopped cilantro over the top.

EDIT: ACK! I forgot the accompaniment to the last recipie (the dry-cooked garbanzos).

1 large english cucumber
5 thai bird chiles
1 small onion
lemon juice
salt

Dice up the cucumber, and sprinkle lightly with salt. Set aside to drain. Dice the onions finely, and mince the chiles. Marinate the onions and chiles in the lemon juice. Strain out the cucumber after 1/2 hour of "soaking" in the sprinkling of salt. Toss through to combine.

You may omit the chiles, or reduce the amount, but having that kick along with the cooling refreshing cucumber is a really nice contrast.

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With the soup and the hummus, you should feel free to experiment, and try your favourite things. With that last one (the dry cooked garbanzo) there is little "wiggle room" there, unless you wanted to experiment with other beans. Feel free to ask questions, or give suggestions for improvement!

Yeah, seriously.

Ughhhh I want hummus so badly right now. D:

I love chickpeas, awesome recipes you have there!

One of my favourite things to do with chick peas is saute them with a bit of olive oil, garlic, curry powder and five-spice powder. I like it hot so I add some cayenne pepper or chilis. 3nodding

They're great as a snack, or mixed in with some ginger-flavoured couscous.