This battered chickpea recipe happened completely by accident.
Accidents don’t usually happen in my kitchen, unless we’re talking about the bad kind. Like when my processor exploded while making this pesto…
Or when the blender decided to erupt, exploding Green Monster lava all over the kitchen. Or those (many) times when I plugged in the electric mixer to discover it’s already turned on, shooting batter all over the place, as I scream for help.
This processor is the second Kitchenaid 14-cup processor that I’ve murdered, slowly and painfully over time. Actually, I broke the first one trying to process dates on the first try. It takes a real skill to break a processor on the first go around!
I’ve become so accustomed to this wonky processor, I don’t even bat an eyelash when it does weird things like ooze liquids. Eric walked into the kitchen the other day, looking with horror at the processor explosion. I tried to explain to him that this was “normal” and now he thinks I’m the crazy one.
Why do I get the feeling that I’m getting a food processor for Valentine’s Day?
If your food processor isn’t broken, it’s all downhill from here. Use this flavourful, lightened-up pesto on sandwiches, fried chickpeas, wraps, tofu, crackers, and more 
Chickpea Basil Pesto
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3/4 cupPrep time
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0 minutesTotal time
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After making the pesto, I had some leftover chickpeas to use up, so I decided to lightly fry them in the skillet, adding seasonings as I went.
This was my first time making fried chickpeas…and oh my lanta they are good!!
I never thought I’d see the day when Eric would pound back chickpeas. It was funny at first until he ate all of them on me…
Bored of plain chickpeas? The nutritional yeast and seasonings give the chickpeas a thin coating and a ton of flavour, perfect for popping into your mouth. Keep in mind that the chickpeas don’t get crispy, but they do firm up a bit. I used garlic powder instead of fresh garlic in this recipe because the powder gives it more of a coating, like flour would. Add them to a salad, mix them up with chickpea pesto in a wrap, or just eat them plain. Note: You can also scale down the recipe depending on how many chickpeas you have to use up. Enjoyed with the chickpea basil pesto, they did not last long!
"Battered" Fried Chickpeas
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1.5 cupsPrep time
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Directions
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Tuesday’s Post
Thank you for your kind words about the news (and patience for the blog crashing most of Tuesday morning). We now have over 3,000 of you signed up for the newsletter! I’ve started working on the first questionnaire and hope to have the first newsletter out in the next couple weeks. I just need to figure out how this beast works…
Bloggie Awards
The 2012 Bloggies are going down right now until Feb 19th, with bloggers nominated in all kinds of categories. Oh She Glows is nominated in the “Health or Wellness” blog category (along with many of my fav bloggers, like Caitlin and Leo). If you’d like to check out the nominees and vote for your favs in each category, click here. There are a ton of fun categories (and blogs) to check out.
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Today, I’d love to make myself feel better by reading about your kitchen appliance disasters. Tell me all about it…I know I’m not alone!
Also, do you have a food processor that you’re in love with? I’d love to hear about the brand/model you recommend (I get asked this a lot too, so I know many readers would love to read your input.)
This looks so good–I think I’ll be trying it tonight! I do have a question though. I noticed that you used canned chickpeas, and I was wondering if you have preferences with beans–dried or canned, and why? I go back and forth with this–convenience vs cooking process, and I’d love to here your thoughts :)
Hey Keri, I go back and forth with both methods too, depending on how much time I have available. If I have the time and plan ahead I make them from dried beans because it is much cheaper and probably healthier. I also buy BPA-free cans when I do buy them pre-cooked.
I JUST soaked some chickpeas last night and I think I might start going between the 2 just like you said, depending on how time is. I recently started buying more dried beans, just to try and ‘make’ my own as a way to save a bit of money!
Such a good idea…I need to start making beans in advance and freezing them like I was for a while! It’s easy to get out of the habit.
I buy dried and can my own. It sounds like a lot, but it’s SUPER easy. All you need are some jars and a pressure canner. I take half a day every couple of months and can up a bunch of black beans, chickpeas and kidney beans and I have the best of both worlds. The convenience of canned with the cost and benefits of dried.
I had never thought of freezing beans after cooking them. I take it you can do this? What a great idea!
I’m sorry to hear about your food processor, Angela. Food processors and blenders are always the worst because it means you not only lose your wonderful creation, but that creation ends up on ever surface within five feet of the disaster.
Congratulations on your nomination!
~Emily~
Thanks twice. Once for your thoughts on beans, and once for excusing my glaring spelling error. Here, hear. Ugh!
Do you own a pressure cooker? I only buy eden organic dried beans now and cook them in minutes in a pressure cooker! Saves a ton of time and money. Also pressure cooked chickpeas taste so much better than canned.
how many cups of beans can you cook at a time? I just bought a pressure cooker but have not used it yet.
I have a 6 quart presto stainless steel pressure cooker. I have cooked up to 3 cups of dried beans and I am sure you could do more. I also cook lentil soup in 5 minutes! It is so fast you could make black beans, garbanzo and lentils in an hour! (all in separate batches).
I would love to get a pressure cooker, at some point. My dad swears by one.
It seriously never leaves the dry rack because I use almost every single day! The soups that it makes are soooo flavorful and so quick! Mine is a presto 6 quart stainless steel that I ordered from amazon for $40. I use it more than my food processor and vita mix! There is a great video on you tube that shows you how to use one.
It you have a crock pot just cook the beans overnight on low, you don’t even have to soak them. You may have to play around with the time/setting but that is what I do and it saves so much time
Looks like I’ve got lunch! Thanks, Angela :) .
Can’t say I’ve ever had an appliance explode but I do short out the kitchen circuits all the time and think my gadgets are broken so then I run around plugging them in the hallway :) I need a high quality food processor as well. I was thinking the Ninja brand? I’ll have to check back in the comments as well.
that used to happen to me in this house I stayed in while in school. We could never vacuum while cooking! Not that we did much of either…
Oh my gosh, this looks AMAZING! I’ve just been thinking of what I want to do with a bag of dried chickpeas that a friend gave me and now I know: chickpea burgers and that delicious looking chickpea basil pesto to top them off with! Thanks.
I’ve burned out a pair of beaters before. Before I got my KitchenAid stand mixer (which happened as a result of the mixers situation :D). I knew they were on their last leg because whenever I’d use them, there was definitely something loose inside, shaking around…Until one day they started steaming. I was more upset about the fact that I couldn’t finish making my recipe, which was of course, your chocolate chip cookies! haha But, now that I have the standmixer, cookies for everyone, every week!
who knew appliances could be so dangerous, right? Glad you got your stand mixer!
LOL I’ve totally had the green monster lava erupt in my kitchen too! I’ve got a Cuisinart food processor/blender combo and although I can’t remember the model right now, I can definitely get it to you soon! It’s great and I’ve had absolutely no problems (knock on wood!) Another kitchen disaster was the time I singed all the hairs on my arm off when I lived in Bahrain. The flame on our gas stove had gone out, and my mum told me to just “carefully reach in and relight it”. I figured I’d be fine because after all, it was my mum telling me to do this. A few seconds later, BOOM! Hairs were gone, eyebrow was gone, and my mum felt terrible!!
That would be traumatizing. Glad u are ok Ange!
I think we might have the same Cuisinart Processor/Blender! I don’t use the blender portion at all. Have my Blendtec Blender for that (which by the way is the best blender ever!). No issues with the food processor except that it is tiny….4 Cups I believe. Looking to move up, but when I look at the 14 cup Kitchen Aid (like what you have Angela) I see reviews on how the food gets in places..and you can’t clean it out… that would bother me! haha
I can’t wait to make that pesto!
Oh man, I can’t think of anything off the top of my head with a specific appliance. I don’t know if this counts or not but we had these old fondue pots (the kind that used sterno) and we were so excited to do a fondue night with our friends. It took 4 HOURS because the sterno kept going out and I felt like a dork. We immediately got electric ones. It might not be as fun but the next time it took 2 hours from start to finish (3 courses) like it was supposed to! :-)
I got my first food processor this year after being a vegetarian for 15 years. It is a cuisinart and I cannot believe I used to live without one!! Love your blog!
Totally gonna make that pesto. YUM! This wasn’t an appliance disaster, but it was a major kitchen disaster: years ago, I had unscrewed the cap of my soy milk and lightly placed it back on the nozzle while I went to do something else. I forgot that I hadn’t screwed it back on, and proceeded to shake the carton of soy milk, flinging the stuff on every surface of the kitchen. Yay, morning celebration!
I just got a 14 cup Cuisinart Elite Food Processor and I’m seriously in love. Having only had a mini/blender combo one before this thing is life changing. No accidents/explosions/or breaking yet!
Thanks Gina, I’ve heard great things about Cuisinart processors!
I made the mistake of buying the 7 cup version as I live alone trust me it is not big enough at times but it works great. Check out Caynes appliances, I did a lot of price checking and they often have the best deals.
http://www.cayneshousewares.com/
I love Caynes, thanks for reminding me! I haven’t been in ages.
I only recently started making green smoothies and other beverages in my blender that I got for my wedding (7 years ago) – so it hadn’t gotten much use up until a few months ago. After about a month of smoothie making it started to smell a little like melting plastic. I ignored it because it was still making my smoothies. Then one fateful morning I started blending and it caught on fire. It was a spectacular mess – I couldn’t help but laugh, but only because I didn’t burn my house down :) Needless to say I had to go blender shopping that night!
scary stuff!!
One time my food processor exploded as I was blending a super hot batch of broccoli-daiy soup. I had red hands for a few days, but for months afterwards I would find tiny specks of broccoli in the oddest places.
I accidentally sacrificed a wooden spoon to my stand mixer :( Oopsies Thanks for all the different chick pea recipes! I keep buying more and more cans because of you ;-) Too many recipes, so few days!
Yikes– no good with the food processor!! But the chickpeas look absolutely delicious!
Have you tried roasting the chickpeas? You can get them really crunchy in the oven!
I was also wondering if you can mention when the first newsletter goes out on the blog, I signed up but I’m not sure it went through.
My biggest disaster is not exactly appliance related… I made a big batch of delicious herb dressing in my bullet and some how I managed to knock the container over. The bright green dressing got all over the counter, cupboards, floor and even managed to get on the ceiling! I was also drenched in green and I didn’t really know what to do with myself so I called for help.
I also love roasting chickpeas, but I loved how quick and tasty they turned out in the skillet. It’s a good option for a “must have it now” snack.
Yup I will try to mention on the blog when the newsletter goes out! If you don’t get it, I can manually add you into the system. :)
Love the look of those chickpeas!
My worst kitchen disaster was opening a can of vegi broth to make a soup. The electric can opener didn’t turn off after the lid came off and the entire can of broth went allllll over the kitchen; in between cabinets, under the fridge, in drawers. NOT FUN!
Just today I was making some croutons with leftover day old bread. I proceeded to get completely caught up in work on the computer and forgot about the croutons entirely until I smelled that burnt toast smell and remembered I had put them in the oven. They were burnt to a black crisp. So you’re not the only one with kitchen disasters. I manage to ruin something as simple as toasting bread in the oven, ha :)
oh man that happens to me so much! I always put the microwave timer on instead of the oven timer (because it’s annoying to use) and then I leave the room, only to no hear when the timer goes off. A couple of times it was a good hour before I realized I was cooking something!
I love roasting chickpeas and turning them into little crunchy balls of flavor! Love the marinade you chose…working with nutritional yeast is always a cheezy treat :)
This looks delicious! The shot of the food processor has me a little scared, though. :D I don’t want a big pesto explosion!
http://www.amazon.com/Cuisinart-FP-14DC-Collection-14-Cup-Processor/dp/B002I5DMU0/ref=wl_it_dp_o_npd?ie=UTF8&coliid=I1TSTSLMJAKHQ&colid=2Z9H0FIADJD20
That is a link to A Cuisinart 14 Cup food processor – I have had one for 6 years now and just love it. Cannot wait for you cookbook.
Thanks William, I’ll check it out :)
I just realized they have it in HOT PINK!
I have a feeling i’m going to be making these SUPER soon =)
Kitchen disasters? How bout daily! haha — I overflowed my kitchen last week by leaving the sink running, closed my hand in my pannini press once, lost key parts to my blender, processed food without the lid on it and…. well, today’s a new day and i’m sure i’ll have another disaster by the end of it =) Its always good for a belly laugh-cry combo. haha
I have a 14-cup Magimix that works like a champ but a) only has one speed setting (for a $400 food processor!) and has a million parts that need cleaning every time, which is annoying. However, when it chops carrots and onions into nice, uniform pieces for me so I can make a soup I somehow forgive all its flaws.
ps. I always bake my chickpeas but these look just as yummy and fast!
Ypur pesto recipes are soooo good!! I love the high protein one you made last! Can’t wait to try this one out!!!
I just have to say.. DON’T eat two cans of chickpeas in any form in one sitting. It’s just not pretty.
That is all.
This recipe looks amazing, btw!!! :)
lol..I can imagine!
I was making sunflower seed pate and it wasn’t until after I had sampled some of it and was cleaning up afterwards that I noticed half the scraper was missing… I had scraped down the sides as it was blending and it must have caught the blade. Just goes to show you how sharp those things are because I didn’t feel it grab or anything!
Chickpeas, roasted or sauted… YUM! That recipe is “in the vault!”
First of all, I just have to say how much I LOVE your blog! I’ve been a vegetarian for nearly three years, but I decided to go vegan as a New Year’s Resolution. Your recipe posts have definitely saved me from endless nights of eating salad for dinner.
I can’t say I’ve ever had any explosive accidents in the kitchen, but I have burned pasta once. Okay, twice. Thankfully I’ve come a long way since then.
Thank you Ashley!
That pesto looks great, what an awesome idea!
As far as kitchen food processors go; I go hands down for cuisinart.
I bought a Vitamix at Whole Foods when they were doing a roadshow . Love it! Use it every day and it is so easy to clean. No green lava explosions.
I’ve killed six blenders in the 16.5 years I’ve been married. It’s usually right in the middle of making a smoothie that it happens. So sad! I just killed my crock pot last week. I had the heavy insert sitting on the back burner of my stove. I was cooking rice on the front burner (or so I thought). I walked away to help my son with a math problem and heard a huge pop from the kitchen. Yep turned on the wrong burner and cracked the insert. Ugh!
pesto hummus….. duh! How have I never seen this on the blogworld before it’s genius. My food processor is…. quirky also. I have a cuisineart and love it though!
I’d never tried the chickpeas in the pan before- just roasted in the oven…can’t wait to give this a go…
And green messes are somehow the worst!!!
Haha, I hope you do get a new food processor next week!
Dates should come with a food processor warning – I blew two 1-cup models and almost totalled my partner’s blender trying to make tasty Larabar-knockoffs! I’ve since learned to soak them for 30 min pre-processing and no more blenders were harmed in the making of delicious!
Can’t wait for the cookbook – keep up the good work, Angela!
haha i was making larabar knockoffs too im pretty sure
Poor processor! That basil looks like it was worth it though. I’ve never fried chickpeas before – I do like them baked. I love how crispy/crunch they get! Will have to try out the frying method next.
My worst kitchen appliance disaster… oh what a story. It was last year, I was in graduate school and had an exam that day…but I had woken up at 5:30 am with a horrific migraine. Obviously, I still had to take the exam, at this point it was lunch time, so I knew I had to eat something before I left for school to take the exam at 4:00 pm. I had taken medicine but I still felt pretty awful and all I wanted was a smoothie. So.. into my blender went a frozen banana, strawberries, soy milk and flaxseed. I hit blend, as usual. All of the sudden, I felt small things hitting me in the arm. I looked down and saw all these little black pieces of plastic on my arm. OH that’s because my blender was basically shredding itself on the inside and spewing tiny bits of black plastic all over the kitchen. I cried (seriously, I know) and ended up making my smoothie in the food processor. Desperate times call for desperate measures!
I feel so bad for laughing at this, but damn that is funny!!! Not at the time, of course. Good grief, I can’t believe it ate itself.
Ohhh, fried chickpeas?! I’ve only ever roasted them. I would assume that they would be similar…
I am just way too obsessed with chickpeas lately (in both savory and sweet dishes)- not that it’s necessarily a bad thing…
my food processor exploded one time when I was making black bean brownies…it was messy… :)
Oo I’ve never seen pesto made with chickpeas, love that idea. I wonder how the pan fried chickpeas compare to roasted chickpeas hmm. I’ll have to try them! I don’t know if I’ve had appliance disasters. I mean my blender always leaks a bit from the bottom and I have no idea why. My food processor only works if I hold the top in place (otherwise it eventually falls out of place it’s supposed to click into and will stop). But I’m just used to those little quirks! I am dying to get a new food processor so look forward to seeing what people say is the best. :)
My poor food processor has definitely taken a beating too. When I first discovered how to make nut butters I went crazy making so many different kinds…. And it almost didn’t make it.
On a better note, both these recipes look phenomenal! The pesto is kinda like a hummus-esque pesto. Love it!
While this isn’t actually a kitchen APPLIANCE disaster, and it didn’t technically happen TO me, it might still make you feel better. :) When I was an undergrad I shared a townhouse with three other women, and one day, two of them decided to open up a bottle of red wine in the kitchen. Something went wrong with the wine bottle opener and the end result was red wine all over the cabinets, counter, floor, even the ceiling! Oops!
As for food processors, we are putting a KitchenAid 13-cup processor on our wedding registry. My fiance’s sister just got one recently, and that thing is beast! Right now I have a 3-cup (or 4?) Cuisinart, and it gets the job done when I make my weekly batch of hummus. :)
That’s happened to me before too (the wine) and once I was using a wine opener and the cork fell INTO the wine bottle and of course we couldnt get it- or the tiny cork shards- out. That wasn’t a good drink!
Well, student life taught me how to open a wine bottle with a plastic pen, a screw driver and an electric drill. Pushing the cork inside was always a good option esp. if you break the cork on the half way. And oh yes, we always used a tea shieve to get rid of cork pieces – it worked! :)
Good old days lol..
hahah wish I would have thought of that one!
Not once, not twice, but THREE times my mom used her vitamix tamper without putting the lid on!
She buys them 2 at a time now.
oops this comment posted below for some reason. Anyways, I said –>Ouch!! I’ve heard that happening so many times, I’m actually surprised it hasn’t happened to me before..
I love when a so-called disaster turns into something fabulous. In this case=SUCCESS!
I will for sure try these. I love this treat and that fact that you jazzed it up with your sauce. Amazing. Healthy too! Yes.
I usually curry up my chickpeas but I love the thought of pesto. :)
I have one of those ceramic, solid surface range tops. You know the kind where you have to be careful when you’re done using it because the burner area is still hot but doesn’t look any different than the rest? Well, let’s just say the bottom of my blender learned that one the hard way. The base is half melted but still seems to work alright!
ohhh that would be heartbreaking! I’ve melted many plastic baggies (from bulk food stuff) on my stovetop…and pots for that matter.
I have a 9 cup Cuisinart food processor and so far I am very happy with it.
Stick with a cuisinart it’s a classic, not the fancy ones, just the food processor. It’s almost as good as my vitamix blender. I’ve had mine for 10 yrs. no problems.
I’ve had no problems with appliances, although this morning my hair dryer blew and I burn my pots all the time….it must be my stove. :)
I always blame my stove for everything!
hows this for kitchen disaster: i moved in with my long term boyfriend for this past summer. he’s working on his masters in environmental engineering, and still lives in his fraternity house since its so much cheaper than an apartment anywhere else, plus its a 3 story mansion built in the 1800’s with more “character” than you can imagine. I love to cook, but I ESPECIALLY love to bake. the problem? the oven in his house is probably 60 years old.. to light it, you have to remove the bottom pan and light the pilot light by turning the gas all the way up, lighting a piece of paper using one of the stove burners, and reaching your arm to the back of the oven while working your magic with a sparker button which lights the pilot light… sounds fun right? thats just the beginning. the thermistor on the oven is broken, so it only has one setting: on, which is about 600 degrees. so you have to crack the oven door with a spatula and watch a thermometer inside to get the temperature right, and things tend to burn on the bottom and not cook on the top. so frustrating!! Now that we have a different place with a real oven I could not appreciate it more!!!!
And he bought me an Oster 10 Cup Food Processor for my birthday and I absolutely love it, I’ve never had any problems with it and it also makes grating carrots and zucchini, or slicing veggies for stir fry a breeze!
My food processor died today because I tried to make A LOT of almond butter at once. It was just too much for the poor thing and now my kitchen smells bad because of the smoke… :(.
A really nice food processor is Thermomix, though maybe only available in Europe? And my Bosch processor is really nice as well. I hope it`s not completely dead…
Well, this is surely a pleasant kitchen mistake!! Looks delicious!!!
While not an appliance disaster per say, it was an epic mess. My mom baked an apple pie and when it was done in the oven put it one the back burner to cool. I guess the oven was still cooling and the pie got too hot (it was sitting on the back burner above the vent that helps the oven cool) and the apple pie EXPLODED all over the kitchen. Hot apple pie filling + pastry + broken glass everywhere! Lesson: beware of aging pyrex dishes.
I attempted my first time to make homemade almond butter in my processor, after about 10 mins on and off it finally got really hot and smoked a little, not good. What is funny is I still use this same processor and it works just fine, must have overloaded the poor thing.
Oooh, yum. Never thought of battering chickpeas but they look awesome. Gotta try that some time.
If it makes you feel any better, I once used a hand mixer until it literally went up in smoke. It made a popping noise and then spewed smoke out the little vents in the sides. I still don’t really know how it happened. I should really invest in a better quality mixer, haha.