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?
Featuring all new, protein-packed salads, hearty toppers, flavour boosters, and dressings you'll want to drink, my new cookbook will transform the way you think about salads. Oh, and be sure to flip to the back for a surprise dessert chapter!
Chickpea Basil Pesto
Yield
3/4 cup
Prep time
Cook time
0 minutes
Total time
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
Ingredients
- 2 garlic cloves
- 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 4 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 1 cup packed fresh basil, stems removed (30 grams)
- 1/2 cup cooked chickpeas
- 1 tbsp nutritional yeast (optional)
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt, or to taste
Directions
- With the food processor running, drop in the peeled garlic cloves through the top opening until minced.
- Scrape down the sides of the bowl, and add in the oil, lemon juice, and basil. Process until smooth, stopping to scrape down the bowl as needed.
- Add in the chickpeas and optional nutritional yeast. Process again until smooth. Add salt to taste and process. You can add a bit more oil or water to achieve your desired consistency. Scoop into a jar or air-tight container. Will keep in the fridge for 1 week or so.
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…
Featuring all new, protein-packed salads, hearty toppers, flavour boosters, and dressings you'll want to drink, my new cookbook will transform the way you think about salads. Oh, and be sure to flip to the back for a surprise dessert chapter!
"Battered" Fried Chickpeas
Yield
1.5 cups
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
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.
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp oil
- 1 (15-oz) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- 2-2.5 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder
- 1/4 tsp Herbamare (or use kosher salt)
- freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- Pinch of cayenne pepper, optional
Directions
- Heat 1 tbsp oil in a medium-sized skillet over medium heat.
- Meanwhile, drain and rinse the chickpeas. When the skillet has pre-heated (chickpeas should sizzle on it), carefully add the drained chickpeas to the skillet. Be very careful as they will sizzle and crackle in the oil and it may splash you.
- Fry the chickpeas, stirring every 20 seconds or so, over medium heat. After a few minutes, stir in the rest of the ingredients to taste. The chickpeas will have a thin coating on them. Fry for about 5-6 more minutes, stirring frequently and making sure they don’t burn. If they are starting to burn, reduce heat. They should be golden and lightly charred in some parts.
Tip:
Enjoyed with the chickpea basil pesto, they did not last long!
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.
~~~
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.)
Name an appliance and I’ve had a disaster with it haha. Food processor, stand mixer, toaster, blender… It seems like I always make a mess. Love this recipe! These would be great in the summer even mixed with pasta salad :)
YUMMO! HOw very delicious indeed!!!
“I tried to explain to him that this was normal…” You are hilarious! I always laugh when I read your posts. I laughed really hard yesterday when I read your comment about spilling chia seeds everywhere and finding mysterious spills on your slippers. I feel your pain with the leaking processor. My Kitchen Aid blender leaks all the time now, and at first at drove me crazy, but now I just roll with it. So what if my green monster leaks on the counter? That’s what paper towels are for! :)
Sorry to hear about your food processor curse! Those chickpeas look awesome. Bet they taste awesome too!
This looks so good can’t wait to try it! Have gotten a little tired of plain hummus . I soak 3 pds. of beans at a time and cook in slow cooker then freeze what I don’t need. It’s alot cheaper and I think they taste better. Thanks for your recipes and your web site you have really helped us so much .
We make these in place of fries or potato chips all the time. I love making them spicy too. I have even “honey” roasted, they taste just like peanuts. YUM.
Kitchen disaster – brand new food processor, first time using it. I emptied the contents of what I had just processed into a bowl and then put the plastic piece down on a hot stove. Thank goodness you can replace those. The smell of melted plastic was horrible.
Those chickpeas look amazing! Can’t wait to try them.
I forgot to tell you about my blender explosion ! I was making your wonderful vegan gravy [My whole family thinks it’s to die for] it started leaking from the bottom and I quickly shut it off but it just kept running and sparking and smoking , it looked like it was possessed ,I’m embarrassed to admit I actually ran away from it . My husband was laughing so hard he said my eyes looked like saucers , then he went in and unplugged the beast . Which had actually caught fire by this time. He now loves to tell the story of rescuing me from the demon possessed blender. It was really weird like something you see in a movie that looks kinda phony, totally strange !
These both look great!
I have a Cuisinart food processor that has 12-cup, 10-cup, and a 3-cup bowls. It also has 3 blades and two discs that go with it. I LOVE it. I use it almost every day. It’s very powerful — it has no problem with dates! My only complaint is that the gasket on the lid is difficult to clean.
I saw this post this morning, and HAD to make these for lunch! The pesto & chickpea combo is delicious! I never would have thought to combine these, but I just ate the entire batch I made- oops. And now I am eating the pesto I have left by the spoonful! The best part about this is it is super quick to make! It only took me about 10 minutes :) Thanks Angela!
Been there done that with the whole “plugging the mixer in without knowing it’s already turned on” action. ‘Flour bombed’ my kitchen a couple of times doing that. So for my food processor recommendation, I have the Cuisinart DFP-14BCN 14-Cup Food Processor in Brushed Stainless Steel. I purchased it on Amazon. Seriously this thing is an animal! So incredibly quiet, very sleek, easy to assemble, clean and operate. The power it unleashes is unvelieveable. I regularly make pestos, cinnamon date balls, yeast dough, banana soft serve, the list goes on and on. I LOVE THIS MACHINE!
Where oh where to start with kitchen disasters??? Maybe the first time I learned to use the dishwasher about 10 years ago (I’m 24 now) and put in regular dish detergent rather than dishWASHER detergent…bubbles coming out of the entire kitchen! Or the time more recently that my younger sister and I were trying to ‘country fry’ steaks for Father’s Day for our dad and nearly burned the kitchen down because the oil almost caught on fire…Dad had to save the day on that one. He ended up cooking his own steaks for Father’s Day haha
So many more – including several involving a food processor with a mind of its own :)
Oh dear, you broke the food processor on the first go. That’s depressing. I broke a juicer on the first go many years ago. I don’t want to think about it though…
I’ll go and vote for your blog in a minute. You are so inspiring Angela. :)
i can’t believe i have never tried fried chickpeas. i LOVE them baked, and this is much faster!
I’ve definitely had my share of kitchen appliance disasters. The one that takes the cake though happened when I was about 12. My mom, sister, and I were making cookies, and I was beating the batter with an electric mixer. All the sudden, I had this pain in my head, and I realized that my hair had gotten caught in the beaters! The beaters twisted up my hair till they were pounding on my head! We struggled to get the darn thing turned off for a few seconds. I had a bald spot on my head for awhile after that incident! :)
I had a laugh reading your food processor troubles! My mom has had her black and decker food processor since her wedding day 20 years ago and its still going strong! It sounds like the world is breaking in two when I try to process dry dates but other than that it really can’t be beat.
BTW, not sure if I am just waaaay behind the times and everyone already knows this, but I was ecstatic to learn the the blade from my broken blender fits onto a normal sized mason jar. So now I can make smoothies in a jar, using the blender base, and it doesn’t matter that the “jug” part of the blender is broken. Most helpful thing I have ever learned in the kitchen!
Oh… oh, those chickpeas sound good. This may sound odd, but I literally *crave* chickpeas, sometimes – but I’ve never had them like this before. The pesto sounds good as well, but oh… oh, the chickpeas. :P
And I apologize for not having a brand of food processor to recommend… I oftne find myself in the same situation, with liquid oozing out or things mysteriously stopping or starting, and for the most part I’ve resigned myself to believing that’s just the way it’s going to be. One of these days I’ll talk myself into getting a new one.
I have an OLD 7 cup Cuisinart food processor. We have a bit of a love-hate relationship (I may have abused her a bit) – I use it at least once a day (sometimes 4-5 times) for some horrible and mean task. For the most part, she keeps on going… BUT… if I am processing anything that might get even a little liquid-y, I have to put a towel over her. This saves my walls from being splashed with all manner of messiness. I get frustrated each time I have to do it. Then I remind myself that I have had her for a LONG time (over 10 years – I really don’t remember not having her).
When I buy a new one, it will likely be another Cuisinart. I feel like I owe them at least that much :)
My hubby munches up chick peas cooked this way, too (this is very out of character). I usually add a bunch of garam masala or chaat masala at the end – VERY yummy! I can’t wait to try adding a bit of nutritional yeast… why didn’t I think of that??
I don’t always get along with my food processor either. It’s a Moulinex – nothing fancy – I’ve had it for years and when I haven’t used it for a while I seem to forget how to put the pieces together to make it work! Then once I finally remember how to get it to turn on, it’s like the spinning action of the blade tightens everything and I can’t get the lid off. On more than one occasion I’ve been known to take my meat tenderizer mallet and bang away on the lid to pry it off. I keep hoping that in doing this I will break something and have an excuse to buy a new one but sadly that hasn’t happened yet.
I’m also pretty good at burning out hand mixers – must have gone thru half a dozen in the last 10 years!