Cooking More for Less: 1 lb. of dry Chickpeas Makes ALL of this

On Monday night, I conducted an experiment.  I wanted to see if you could soak your beans in a crockpot overnight. Drain them in. Place them back in the crockpot. Fill with water again and turn the crockpot on High and lid while you took the kids to school, worked, picked them up again, got home and the beans would be done with no fuss.  Well, it worked!!!  No waiting for the beans to cook any longer!!!  I'm so doing this for now on.

MY CROCKPOT

Step 1.  Before you go to bed, put your chickpeas (garbanzo beans) in the crockpot.  Fill the pot with water and place on the counter. No need to get the electrical part out until tomorrow morning.  

Step 2.  When you wake up. Drain the beans in a colander and rinse.  

Step 3. Place beans back in the crockpot.  Fill to an inch or two from the top with water.

Step 4. Place the ceramic pot into the electrical part of it.  Place the lid on top.  Plug in.  Set to High.

Step 5. When you get home, test the beans to see if they are done.  If there are skins floating at the top, they usually are.

Step 6. Drain the beans in a colander and rinse.  Let cool for a bit.

It was so easy. 

1 LB OF CHICKPEAS MADE ALL OF THIS

From this 1 lb. bag of chickpeas, it makes 7 cups of prepared beans!!!  Seven!! That is fourteen servings, or you could say, fourteen meals!!

I made three dishes with these 7 cups of beans in a half hour. Seriously. A half hour.  Dinner: Curried Chick P and Potato Patties.  Lunch: Chick P Salad. Snack: Bean Dip

I started with the Bean Dip, so we can start there too.

BEAN DIP

Bean Dip

Ingredients

1 clove garlic

Juice of one lemon, (I like to zest it first so I can toss that it in later)

1/4 cup. olive oil

2 tsp. Bangarang

2 sprigs fresh parsley (optional)

1 - 2 tsp. Cumin, ground (optional)

3 cup prepared chickpeas

1/4-1/2 cup water

Directions

In a food processor, process the garlic, lemon juice, parsley, olive oil and spices.  Add chickpeas and process.  If chunky, add 1/4 cup water until it is smooth.  Add a little more if needed.

Put into a bowl or tupperware container.  Leave the processor on the machine because we will be using it again. Top of the bean dip with a little more Bangarang!, the lemon zest if you like and more parsely, you can also chop up some tomato.  Serve with veggies or pita chips as a snack.  You can put it on sandwiches for lunch the next day too.

CURRIED PATTIES

Curried Chick and Potato Patties

Ingredients

2 cups prepared chickpeas

1 lb. of potatoes, scrubbed, peeled and cubed

1 T. Coconut oil, or whatever ya got

1 yellow onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic

1/2 cup marina sauce or Ragu

1 1/2 Tbsp. curry powder

1 tsp. Bangarang!

2 Tbsp. water

Veggie Oil for Frying

Directions

Get out a big stock pot.  Fill it halfway with water and add 1 tsp sea salt.  Set High to boil.  Scrubm rinse and peel potatoes. Cut into a large dice.  Place the potatoes in the boiling water.  Boil for about 10 minutes or until a fork goes in cleanly. Pour potatoes into a colander. Let cool a bit.

While you are boiling the potatoes, get out a skillet, heat the oil to medium heat and saute the onion and garlic for about 5 minutes.  Add marina sauce and stir for a few minutes.  Toss in spices.  Cook a few more minutes.  Toss in a few Tbsp. water.  Remove from heat.  

THE PATTIES I FROZE FOR LATER

In that same food processor, process the chickpeas until chunky.  Place them in a big bowl. Throw the boiled potatoes on top and mash those two together with a potato masher or a fork.  Add the sauteed veggies.  Stir it up. 

In that same large skillet, heat up 1/4 cup veggie oil on Medium heat.  Shape potato mash into small snowballs. My rule is to only have what I can cup together with both hands, with no mash poking out.  Flatten into a patty.  Get three or four of them made and place them in the hot oil.  Cook 3-4 minutes on each side or until crisp and golden on each side. 

Place on a dish line with paper towels.  I cooked six patties for a family of four and shaped and froze the rest on a baking sheet.  Which reminds me I need to put those that are in the freezer in a baggie or container to be cooked next week. . .   All together it made 12 patties!!!!!!!!!!!  

I served them over a bed of spinach and made this dip for its dressing.  I made the dip and saved half for the Curried Dinner and the other half went into the chickpea salad for tomorrow's lunch.

DRESSING

DRESSING

Ingredients

1 cup vegenaise

1 wedge of lemon juice

1/4 tsp. cumin powder

1/4 tsp. coriander powder

1/2 tsp. Bangarang!

1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped

Directions

Stir all of that up in a bowl. Divide the dressing in half.  Place one half in a large bowl, the other half in a small dressing or dip dish.

CHICK P SALAD

Chick P Salad

Ingredients

2 cups prepared chickpeas, mashed

2 stalks celery, chopped

1/4 cup of red or yellow onion, chopped

1/2 of the Dressing mix from above

Directions

In that same food processor or with a fork, process or mash the beans until they are chunky.  Spoon out beans into the big bowl that the dressing is in.  Chop up celery and onion. Toss into the big bowl.  Stir it up until everything is combined. Taste.  Delicious.  Needs fresh pepper or more Bangarang! go for it.

Put it in a few 8 oz. Mason Jars with a lid.  One will be your lunch tomorrow and one for the hubs or whoever.  

Pack a few slices of bread, or pita in a plastic bag or wrap.  In another container, place the veggies that will be tucked in to the sammich or pita.  Or just pack the salad greens in a tupperware container so you can toss the Chick P salad on top at lunch.

Enjoy.

All of this with one LB. of Chickpeas.  Just AWESOME.