image courtesy smartkitchen.com
Want to pick an all-star item for your diet?
Its resumé reads: –
-2nd most widely grown legume in the world after soy beans
-1 of the 8 founder crops of civilization
-sourced back to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period, circa 8000 BC
I got up yesterday morning and thought I should bake a cake with Garbanzo bean flour, mediterranean citrus, candied citron and pine nuts…….. hmmmm.
Ah, the word, Renaissance. It has a profound meaning for me in so many ways. I am drawn to everything about that period in history – as well as the amazingly-packed power of the word itself, as in, to rejuvenate, rebuild, re-form and be re-born. How often we overlook the power of this word – perhaps, today’s most useful food for thought……..
Right now, we are in the middle of a huge Renaissance in the use of the humble Chick Pea, and I for one, couldn’t be more excited about it. Salad, Soup, Dip, burgers, snack food and CAKE! Not a bad “tip of the iceberg” start for this rather boring-looking, basically color-deprived little legume! But, read on! Don’t be tempted to ignore this little nugget! It’s broad array of applications and its incredible nutrient value should beckon you to re-arrange your grocery cart, and significantly.
I have recently gotten to thinking about how many recipes are “springing up” that include new ways to use ancient ingredients, including the humble Garbanzo bean, or Chick Pea (as well as some ancient grains, such as Farro). As we trundle on down the aisles of the market, we might just mindlessly pass these by, not thinking of this as the substantive mistake that it is. There are so many more colorful and appealing-looking items to work with, especially at this time of year. Do they have a little image problem? It might just be the awkward, if not unfortunate names – Chick Pea, Garbanzo Bean…….. But, they, like many ancient grains and legumes, they are oh so definitely worth a chance to hop into the cart and be made into something new, fresh and glorious for the season. High in protein, and other key nutrients and very useful indeed in your kitchen. Want a complete picture of their nutrient value? Look at this – and wow! We might all just be wise to use these charts for many if not all of our food selections.
http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/legumes-and-legume-products/4326/2
One of the things I absolutely love about what I spend my time doing these days is to see the trends in the most humble of food items. Like mini-skirts, go-go boots, bell-bottoms, capri pants, shirtwaist dresses, and pearls, trends in specific food items come and they go, and swing back into fashion again. It makes life fun to see what goes and comes and what endures – for thousands of years. (Somehow, I don’t think Twizzlers will be found 8000 years from now.)
Some days I consider that my culinary/cultural site line is way too narrow and that I should expand my cuisine-seeking missiles to other climes, like to Asia. I readily admit to being presently more than a little stuck in a phase of my learning curve and celebration/creativity phase of food in the genre of western european culture, as this is where my primary orientation has grown up. I remain fascinated however, with the culture and food of the entire Mediterranean region and have always had a curiosity about North Africa and the Middle East. Chalk it up to “bracket creep” as the overlaps in culture are indelible. I just haven’t fully gotten there yet or over to Asia, yet.
Being a the linear learner, I tend to saturate in the area that I am presently focused on until completely exhausted and then will feel free to crawl on. However, I am not without little peaks here and there beyond the obvious points of my obsessions. And thus my interest in , the new emerging collection of inspiration around the humble Chick Pea, or Garbanzo bean. This is one trend I can get on board with. Last week I found myself listening to an interview on The Splendid Table with Maureen Abood helped and my interest was piqued. Her new book, Rose Water and Orange Blossoms is a wonderful story and introduction, for me, into the wonders of the Lebanese kitchen.
To only focus on hummus and chick peas is to insultingly and barely just begin toscratch the surface, but you have to start somewhere. So predictably, it was the conversation about Rose Water and Orange Blossom Water shortbreads that really got me hooked. But, I shall save that for a later blog.
Admittedly, the renaissance of hummus has been on the food scene for a little while now – yes we all know about the supermarket chains’ array of flavored hummus. However, chefs, cooks and bakers alike have picked up this little gem and are exploding with it in so many other ways. Its flavor affinities are wide-ranging, intriguing and worth exploring fully. The emergence of Garbanzo bean flour, along with fresh new applications in salads, and frying them up, treating them as a snack food and creaming them seems like just the beginning of the all-powerful potential for Garbanzo beans.
http://archaeology.about.com/od/domestications/qt/chickpeas.htm
Here are a few recipe ideas to just start you (me) out:
http://www.onceuponachef.com/2014/02/crispy-roasted-chickpeas.html
http://www.runningonrealfood.com/chickpea-veggie-burgers/
http://www.calbeans.org/garbanzo-chickpea-or-hummus-whats-in-a-name/
Ellie Krieger’s Autumn Vegetable Soup is one of my all-time go to recipes – http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/autumn-vegetable-soup.aspx
http://www.onceuponachef.com/2013/12/baby-kale-salad-with-lemon-parmesan-crispy-roasted-chickpeas.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/28/chickpea-recipes-garbanzo-beans_n_2409950.html
http://www.borrowedsalt.com/blog/2014/11/4/ottolenghis-mango-and-curried-chickpea-salad
http://www.mynaturalfamily.com/recipes/garbanzo-beans/15-best-chickpea-flour-recipes/
http://www.ibreatheimhungry.com/2011/10/apple-and-garbanzo-cake-2.html
http://atastylovestory.com/apple-chickpea-cake-with-a-lemony-cream-cheese-frosting/
image courtesy atastylovestory.com
Well, you get the picture. On this rainy day, I think I will take the easiest start-out with a trip to Whole Foods to stock up on Eden Organics Garbanzo Beans and make Ellie Krieger’s soup.
Then, I’ll return to the cake idea from above – Garbanzo bean flour-based cake with Mediterranean Citrus, Candied Citron and Pine Nuts. It’s a great day for experimenting!
and, as an aside, here’s a yummy recipe using their Quinoa:
http://www.edenfoods.com/recipes/view.php?recipes_id=541&eID=t19ie67o78c0ts3qam11qfci05