Garbanzos! Last-Minute Recipe Ideas

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Garbanzo Beans for those Last-Minute Dishes

Call them Garbanzo Beans or call them Chickpeas: these little gems will help you add that last minute touch to those wonderful dishes you already made.

Garbanzo Beans (chickpeas) are rich, creamy, and nutty. They go with just about everything—soup, salad, as a side dish, as a dip (homemade hummus)—they have a distinctive, slightly nutty flavor. They are dense, firm, and delicious.

You’ll note that most of these recipes do not include “serving size.” Any of these recipes can be doubled, tripled, quadrupled, or quintupled to serve all of your guests—and make sure they have seconds. If you have any vegetarian friends coming over for the holidays—and you may not know if they are—avoid all chicken, turkey, and beef broth. Vegetable broth adds better flavor to any of these dishes.

If you don’t have time to make garbanzo beans from scratch, replace 2 cups homemade garbanzos with one 15-1/2 ounce can.

Making Garbanzos from scratch

Making beans is ridiculously easy. For a $1.75 per package, you’ll get an enormous amount of beans as compared to the canned variety. This basic recipe will give you plenty of beans to add to quick, last-minute recipes listed below. You can use two bags to have on hand. They freeze nicely.

This is the basic recipe for all beans. Bigger beans usually require soaking overnight, draining, and then another long soak. When you drain beans, always save the water to add flavor to other recipes. Lentils do not need a long soak. (Bean liquor is an excellent soup base addition.)

Basic Beans

Pour garbanzo beans into a pot

Cover with water

Let beans soak for 8 hours.

Drain the beans

Cover with fresh water

Add salt to taste

Bring beans to a boil and simmer until soft—about 45 minutes to 1-1/2 hours

Drain the beans, saving the water, and put aside for other recipes.

Plain garbanzos with butter, salt, and parsley are delicious on their own. Need a quick appetizer? Try these.

Hummus

2 c garbanzo beans

3 T olive oil

2 T tahini (ground sesame seed sauce, usually available in the “ethnic” food aisle. If you can’t find tahini, try 2 T sesame oil or extra olive.

2 cloves garlic (you can also try roasted garlic

Half a lemon

Add lemon juice, and remove all seeds a blender. Strain the pulp from the lemon juice with a small strainer (a tea strainer will work). Crush two cloves of garlic or roasted garlic and add to the juice.

Add the rest of the ingredients to a blender or food processor including 1/4 cup of liquid from the drained beans. Blend on high, stirring to make sure texture is consistent.

Place the mixture in a bowl; make an indentation in the center, a pour a tablespoon of olive oil in the center. Sprinkle with paprika or sumac. This recipe is supposed to serve 8 people. Good luck with that.

If you have access to sumac, use this spice in place of paprika. Sumac is a delicious Middle East spice with a wonderful lemony tang. It’s good for grilling meat, chicken, fish, and even vegetables. This versatile spice should be a staple in your kitchen.

Tip: Refrigerate the pulp for other dishes—try it in spaghetti sauce.

Roasted Garbanzos

2 c garbanzos

1 tbsp olive oil (or more to taste)

½ tsp sea salt (to taste)

½ tsp cayenne pepper (to taste)
You can also use roasted poblano, chipotle, or ancho chili.

½ tsp garlic powder (optional)

Preheat oven to 450°F and line a baking sheet with foil. Line baking sheet with foil. (A sheet of plain foil works fine.) Drain and rinse chickpeas thoroughly. Save the water if you want to make hummus.

Spread chickpeas on baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle with sea salt and cayenne pepper. (You can add chipotle chile powder, and/or sumac.) Stir the beans until evenly coated with oil and spices.

Bake 15 to 20 minutes to desired crunchiness, and bake at 400-425°. You can take them out when they’re slightly soft or wait until they’re a little crunchy. If some of the beans pop open like popcorn, that’s a sign that this snack will taste even better.

Basic Salad: Toss garbanzos beans with dark green leafy lettuce, tomatoes, parsley, lemon juice, and olive oil. The taste is similar to tabouli, another easy, unusual, delicious dish for Thanksgiving.

Garbanzo salad: this recipe takes about five minutes.

2 cans organic garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed well

1 organic red bell pepper, diced

½ large sweet onion (or red onion)

3 Tbsp chopped parsley or cilantro (fresh coriander)

Zest and Juice of one lemon

1/4 cup kalamata olives, chopped

2 Tbsp olive oil

Salt and Pepper (to taste)

Mix lemon zest, lemon juice, olive oil and salt and pepper in a small container to make the dressing. (I skip the pepper.) Add the remaining ingredients, pour dressing over the top and toss well. If you have about five extra minutes on your hands, add chopped tomatoes.

Soups: Add to turkey or vegetable stock made with cooked carrots, celery, and onions, and then add some garbanzo beans.

Pilaf: Garbanzo beans and wild rice are absolutely delicious as a side dish for your meal. If you don’t like beans, skip them and just sauté the cooked wild rice with butter, finely chopped celery, and tomatoes.

Wild rice preparation

1 cup Lundberg Wild Blend®*

2 cups water or bouillon

1 tbsp butter or margarine

Salt to taste

*Long grain brown rice, sweet brown rice, Wehani®, Black Japonica™ and select wild rice pieces.

Rinse rice, add ingredients to a pot with a tight-fitting lid, and then simmer for 45 minutes. Bring to boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer 45 minutes. Remove from heat leave them covered for 10 minutes. Do not remove lid.

You can use a rice cooker may be used with the same rice-to-water ratio. (Plain brown rice is also good for this dish. White, long-grained, Jasmine, or Basmati rice make this nice pilaf taste bland.

Rice and Garbanzo Bean Pilaf

1 Tbsp olive oil

2/3 cup wild rice (from above recipe)

2/3 cup vegetable, chicken, or turkey stock*

2/3 cup water

1/4 tsp. pepper (optional)

2-½ c canned garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained

1 tomato\cooked, sliced

2 Tbs. unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

2 Tbs. fresh, chopped mint (optional)

*It’s best to err on the side of caution and use vegetable broth or water for non-meat eaters.

Heat oil in a heavy saucepan over medium heat: Sauté cooked rice until golden, and then stir in stock, water and (if used) pepper. Increase heat to high and bring to a boil. Immediately reduce heat to low.

Cover and simmer 20-25 minutes or until rice is tender and liquid is absorbed. Stir in beans. Turn on broiler. Transfer rice to an ovenproof serving dish. Arrange tomato slices over beans and rice and dot with butter. (You can use more olive oil in place of butter.)

Broil 2-3 minutes or until tomato slices are cooked throughout. Serve pilaf sprinkled with mint. You can also use cilantro, Italian parsley, or chives.

After the beans are done, you can probably all of these garbanzo bean dishes, in about 2-1/2 hours.