A Cuppa for my thoughts: Mighty chickpeas

We all know the benefits of chickpeas and how it is a good substitute for rice or other gluten products like noodles, pasta and bread, to mention only a few. Not only that, chickpeas are so versatile and can be used to swap for rice and pasta.

In today's recipe, I will be doing a switcheroo with rice salad which I prepared yesterday.

Names in Malay language but worry not, there is a translation in the recipe below

The Recipe:

2-3 Limau Kasturi (Kalamansi)

Pudina (mint)

Daun Limau Purut (kafir lime leaves)

French beans

Red onions/shallots

Cili Padi (chili rice)

Kunyit (turmeric)

Daun Kesum (laksa leaf)

Serai (lemongrass stalk)

Bunga Kantan (ginger flower)

Raja Ulam (there isn't a proper translation for this leaf, sorry)

There isn't a proper measurement for the herbs in this recipe because it all depends on how much green you want in your chickpeas salad. In general, most vegetables are between half cup to a cup. Yet, there is no specific metrics system to follow here. I just eye balled the amount of greens I wanted in this dish.

I like to boil chickpeas, which would extand the preparation time up to 2 hours but don't let that discourage you. You hardly do much in that 2 hours because once you've put the soaked (overnight) beans in a pot of water, you can kick back and relax. However if you have a pressure cooker, you can reduce the cooking time to 5 whistles (for the traditional pressure cooker) or to 20 minutes in a pre-programmed pressure cooker. Or you can just opt to use chickpeas out of a jar/can.
Then all that is left to do is to combine the cooked and drained chickpeas with the chopped herbs and serve. You can serve it immediately with some fried fish or crackers. If you have time, let it sit for a bit to allow the flavours to mature.

Hope you will enjoy making this as much as I did despite all the chopping. Please do note that dealing with turmeric will turn your hands, chopping board, knife and even your clothes, if you get them stained, to a bright yellow that will not wash off easily. So practise care when dealing with it.

If you are a fan of chickpeas, you might want to check out my other post on a slightly spicy/curried chickpeas.

For more recipes head over to my Recipes Page

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