Another winner from Yotam Ottolenghi: Chickpea Saut

J

joe

Well-known member
I am always looking for ways to use my garden's non-stop chard, and I had some cooked garbanzos on hand. What a delicious flavor profile! This was a great vegetarian main dish, and it might also make a good first course for a Mediterranean meal, or a side dish for lamb.

Chickpea Sauté with Greek Yogurt

from Plenty, by Yotam Ottolenghi

Serves 4

3/4 pound (8 cups) Swiss chard

1/3 cup olive oil, plus extra to finish

4 medium carrots, peeled and cut into 3/8-inch dice

1 teaspoon caraway seeds

1 1/2 cups freshly cooked chickpeas (canned are fine, too)

1 garlic clove, crushed

1 tablespoon chopped mint

1 tablespoon chopped cilantro

1 tablespoon lemon juice

Salt and black pepper

1/2 cup Greek yogurt

1 tablespoon olive oil

Separate the chard stalks from the leaves. Blanch the stalks in plenty of boiling salted water for 3 minutes. Add the leaves and continue cooking for 2 minutes, then drain everything. Refresh under cold running water and squeeze dry, then chop roughly.

Heat up the olive oil in a large, heavy saucepan. Add the carrots and caraway seeds and sauté for 5 minutes on medium heat. Add the chard and chickpeas and continue cooking for 6 minutes. Now add the garlic, herbs, lemon juice, and some salt and pepper. Remove from the heat and cool down a little. Taste and adjust the seasoning.

To serve, mix together the yogurt, olive oil and some salt and pepper. Pile the vegetables on serving dishes and spoon the yogurt on top. Sprinkle with freshly ground pepper and drizzle over more olive oil.

http://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-chickpea-saute-with-greek-yogurt-recipes-from-the-kitchn-217983

 
How are you and all of your gardens surviving the rain?

I hope that the flooding and such are not impacting you too badly.

 
Hanging in there. Most are pretty well drained, but we are building a new garden right now

and it's mostly piles of lumber, warping, submerged in puddles. In between downpours we got half an arbor built, and then it blew over in Friday's storm. I was disconsolate.

But, overall we are thrilled here in California. The drought has been devastating and so this is a blessing. Thanks for asking!

 
Lots of rain and flooding in No CA right now. Sunny today, which is great because

another big storm is coming in. Thank goodness we live up on a plateau above the valley and everything drains well and away from us. The ground is saturated and everyone is watching their trees, mainly the mighty oaks. This is the first year I have planted a fava bean cover crop, to enrich the soil. It has been unproductive the past few years and I heard this was a good thing to do. The plants are doing very well and they did give a good cover for the soil. I will be bringing in organic compost soon. Have to read up on how to handle the fava bean cover crop when the time comes.
I love rain, but do not like to see folks evacuating from their homes, make me feel sick.

 
You're getting it much worse than we are! I'm glad you're safe. As for the fava beans,

when they're done just chop them down and dig them in. It will be messy and incomplete but let them sit a week or so and dig in again. In another couple weeks they should be well decomposed, and you can also dig in your compost.

Ideally, you dig a cover crop in before it forms seeds, but I know you'll want to enjoy the fava beans. Just be sure to dig them in while the plants are still green. It might mean sacrificing the straggler beans.

 
Thanks Joe, I am hoping this works for the one raised bed I am experimenting with

I really want good, productive tomato plants this year. I got the dried beans in really late, so not sure if I will get any beans, but that was not the purpose. Although I love fava beans, so even a few would be a treat. I would like to have the bed ready to go, by May. No flowers visible yet, and they are only about six inches tall.

 
A good rule of thumb is to allow a month, so dig them in by April, ready or not!

There is a large community garden in the area that is not one of ours. They have lots and lots of rules. One is--no cover crops! (Meaning the seed mixtures you can buy). I guess someone let theirs go to seed and they spread as weeds, so now on one can do it. But I've heard the gardeners get around it by planting fava beans and digging them in. I've also known gardeners to plant garbanzos, pick them green, and dig them in before the plants die. They got very good results.

 
One of my favorite things to get at the Mexican market are those fresh garbanzos

still in their thin green papery shells. I bring them home, saute in a skillet with a little olive oil and a sprinkle of salt, then eat like edamame. They're yummy and addictive. Perhaps you've had them?

 
At the link, for those unfamiliar, are photos of fresh garbanzos

and a couple of treatments. But I first learned how to cook fresh garbanzo beans or chickpeas in the husk from this site: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/315778

I used a cast iron skillet, with just a thin film of olive oil, added the garbanzos and shook the skillet back and forth a few times to sort of keep the husks from burning while they were cooking. If they didn't appear done enough to me I added a little water (a tbsp or so) after about 5 minutes or so and let that cook off. I also salted them a little before removing from the skillet. Eat like edamame, popping out of the shell into your mouth. Nice to munch on with a glass of wine or a cocktail.

http://www.shockinglydelicious.com/introducing-fresh-garbanzo-beans-the-new-edamame/

 
I tried them once, from a Mexican market, and I boiled them--they were quite bland.

But I realize now that was not the best way to cook them!

Gardeners who have grown them use them for green hummus, which is delicious.

 
I bought dried garbanzos once, and used them in a recipe. I never bought them again

I like the canned ones for making my marinated beans which I keep happily in the fridge for most of the summer. So nice to have them available and ready to eat. In the winter I use them in green salads. I have never seen them fresh around here.

 
Thanks for that tip. I have been gardening for over 40 years and never had soil trouble until

we downsized from ten raised beds to 6. Hubby bought soil made at a local nursery. The first year it was good...after that it went downhill, no matter what I did. Threw in egg shells, veggie waste from my kitchen all winter long. Got compost in bags from the nursery every spring about a month ahead of planting. We always tilled it in. Now, I hear tilling is not desirable. We had our soil tested and the treatment to fix was so complicated and expensive, we gave up. Added more compost, fertilizer, all organic. Tomato and pepper plants grow well for the first couple of months then slowly die off. I have no worms anymore.
Strange thing is, all my herbs flourish. My tomatoes cook on the vine, it gets so hot back there. I told my husband I think something is different in the atmosphere, because the heat seems extreme. Garden is surrounded by pea gravel, a driveway, house, and wooden fencing. We did trim the oaks back a few years ago, because we were getting too much shade.


Fava bean crop seems to be doing well....will see what happens.

 
This sounds tricky to diagnose. I've heard the "no till" folks but I don't think

the practice applies to raised beds. I do recommend always having a layer of compost or other organic material on top of the soil, especially in hot weather. How much compost are you using? You should dig in at least a 2-inch layer.

It seems the heat/lack of shade might be the culprit if the tree trimming corresponds with the garden trouble. Also the oaks might be stealing water from the garden during the drought.

Making your own compost with the kitchen waste, mixed with dried leaves or straw or woodchips, and letting decay thoroughly before adding it, might be better than putting it directly in the soil, even in winter.

I'm stumped on the worm thing. This is the point where I would advise you to do a cover crop, which you are already doing! I've seen it really heal bad soil.

Also, I assume you know not to plant nightshades (tomatoes, peppers, eggplant) in the same beds each year. The viruses build up in the soil and last into the next year.

I wish you luck.

 
That could be my issue with the nightshades. I only have three beds dedicated to veggies

the other three have my herbs and one bed is for roses. Usually I plant tomatoes in two of them and peppers in the other, along with radishes, sweet basil (which always does well) and a cucumber or squash. sometimes an eggplant. I will stick to only one bed for the toms and peppers each year and see how that does. Again, thanks

 
Yes. I have heard them referred to as chick peas. I have made excellent hummus with the canned

and love them in salads, as they really perk up with a good vinaigrette. I make a three bean marinated salad with them too, which we love. I use many dried beans in my cooking but for me, the canned garbanzos (peas) are very nice.

 
Yes, they're the same. And of all beans I find them to age the worst--in other words, if they are

more than a year old they just don't want to get tender no matter how long you cook them! I love the dried ones though. I buy them in bulk at a busy local market with a high turnover and try to use them up within a few months. I've bought packets off the supermarket shelf and had to throw the results away. But if you are lucky enough to find fresh ones they cook up nicely and produce a delicious broth, which is a good addition to hummus.

I keep the canned ones on hand too, of course.

 
The nicest and freshest dried I find are at a Middle Eastern market. The are tiny.

Very different than the bigger ones I find elsewhere. Asian/Indian markets too.

 
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