Our good friend, Eliran Arazi, not only treats us to amazing vegetarian meals in his home, but is now also wowing all of NYC with his new vegan eatery in Manhattan’s Union Square, called V-Burger, where he serves up ‘burgers’ fast-food style. Only these burgers are 100% vegan and 100% delicious.
We were over at his house the other day and he served us a fantastic snack as an appetizer. It was roasted chickpeas, also known as garbanzo beans.
Garbanzos are filled of protein and fiber, and are loaded with vitamins and minerals. The amount of fiber in one cup of cooked garbanzo beans provides 12.5 grams of fiber, enough to cover half the recommended daily intake for women, or one third for men. That same cup also provides 70% of your daily folate needs.
It is the main ingredient in hummus, a famous and delicious middle eastern dip. A great recipe for hummus that’s easy to follow can be found here, in this blog, appropriately named The Hummus Blog. I also want to mention a great site called Chickpea and Bean, a plant-based blog, with their recipe using Tarragon Tango Chickpea Salad, found here. I just love plant-based advocates and their wonderful recipes. My friend and mentor, cardiologist Robert Ostfeld, MD, is not only an advocate of a plant-based diet in his own practice but also vegan himself. You can find out about his efforts in changing in-patient meals to plant-based in the guest post he wrote, featured in my blog, called Would You Like a Burger with your Bypass?
When the garbanzo bean is ground up, it creates a flour, which can even be used in baking. This blog post from The Vanilla Bean Blog uses chickpea flour to create delicious chocolate chip cookies. Just wow.
Now back to our friend, Eliran, who kindly agreed to share his recipe of the delicious roasted chickpea snack we had at his house here on this blog.
Goodie.
Get ready for some flavorful yumminess.. and it’s vegan!
Pretty-Please Roasted Chickpeas
(A Vegan Snack)
Ingredients:
2 cans organic chickpeas, drained
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp turmeric
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
Directions:
Pre-heat oven to 375.
Coat drained chickpeas with olive oil, then add the rest of the seasoning ingredients.
Toss together so most chickpeas are coated with flavor.
Spread out in a pan lined with parchment paper and bake for 20 minutes, or until chickpeas turn a medium brown shade.
(My favorite is still soft, but if you prefer them harder, you can roast them for a few extra minutes longer)
Cool and serve.
♦♦ Chick-Pease Out ♦♦
