I have some dried mixed beans and some dried chickpeas (garbanzo beans in American, I think). At the moment I’m unsure whether to make falafel with the chickpeas and a salad with the beans, or to bring a collective tear to the eyes of les Niçois by making a ratatouille with beans.
Either way, I need it in about 5 hours. I’ve made bean salads before but I’ve never been very impressed. Any suggestions? I’m really cheap. And if it has lime juice in it, so much the better.
Moosewood Cookbook has a delicious white bean salad that could probably be adapted for chickpea. Mix the following ingredients into a dressing for the beans:
3 Tb olive oil
2 Tb red wine vinegar
1 tsp salt
1-2 cloves minced garlic
1/2 tsp basil
1/4 cup minced parsley
2 Tbs fresh minced dill
black pepper to taste
If you wanna get fancy, make some pickled onions to put on top or in it:
-Slice 3 red onions as paper-thin as you can.
-Pour some boiling water over them to wilt them.
-Make a brine from 1 cup cider vinegar, 1 cup water, 2 Tbsp brown sugar, 1 tsp salt, and 1 tsp peppercorns.
-Pour it over the onions and let them sit.
If you can get the dried chickpeas ready in five hours, here’s one of my standard chickpea salads (amounts relative):
Chickpeas
finely-diced cucumber
diced tomatoes and thinly sliced red onions (optional.)
Lime juice
Olive oil
Dill
salt and pepper.
I used to use Cardini’s lime-dill dressing but I think it’s been discontinued, and it’s a US brand anyway. The above is just as good. I make this to bring to lunch. It’s better after sitting for a few hours.
I’ve decided to go the falafel option, which means I will be making a bean salad. The chickpeas are actually for the falafel, so probably won’t go in the salad. At the moment, I’ve got beans, spring onions (scallions), red onions, tomatoes, rice wine vinegar, balsamic vinegar dressing, coriander (cilantro), lime, and strong mustard, as possible ingredients.
I also want to make a coleslaw, which I love but don’t seem to be able to make well. It would, ideally, not be too mayonnaisy (my brother doesn’t like mayonnaise) but I don’t want to go full vinaigrette as it might be a bit much with the bean salad, too. For that, I have carrot, red onion, pointed/sweetheart cabbage, mayonnaise and rice wine vinegar. I also have some capers which are very mustardy. I wonder if a few of those will be any good with the beans or the coleslaw?
Directly from a friend:
Elvis Salad
2 cans garbanzo beans/chickpeas (drained and rinsed)
1 roasted red bell pepper, chopped or diced or cut-up or whatever (I get the ones in the jar, already roasted and such)
4 garlic buds, pressed through the garlic presser/mincer (the little breakoffs from the whole head)
2-3 medium zucchini, diced or sliced, steamed until tender
1-2 medium tomatoes, chopped (optional)
5 sprigs of fresh rosemary finely chopped
2 large lemons
1/2 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
a bit of dried basil and oregano
salt to taste
pepper, if you’re into that kind of thing
Mix the dressing separate. Combine vinegar, olive oil and squeeze the hell out of your lemons, with the basil, oregano garlic and salt.
Pour that over the chickpeas, zucchini, and roasted red peppers. Toss together until all is mixed and coated and good.
I like to sprinkle it with feta cheese. Don’t mix the feta into the salad though, it gets soft and weird and runny and bad overnight.
None of the ingredient amounts are exact. I usually put a whole bunch of roasted red bell pepper.
Apparently, I make the world’s laziest bean salad. It’s pretty good, though, IMO, especially when you’re in a hurry.
3 cans of 3 different types of beans (e.g., pinto, red kidney, chickpeas) – drained and rinsed
A few splashes of good balsamic vinegar
One brief drizzle of good olive oil
salt
pepper
dried oregano
dried parsley
Optional: crumbled bacon
Combine in a bowl. Let sit long enough for the dried herbs to get soft. Et VOILA! Eat chilled or room temperature.
Thanks for all the suggestions. I did what I usually do and made something up based on several recipes. It went down well enough. I just wish I had some left today.