Sunday, February 26, 2012

the definitive chickpea salad

My enthusiasm for a Mediterranean-style chickpea salad continues unabated. This is now its third straight week as lunch staple. So it is time to reflect on the recipe a little and give some more precise measurements.

First, I covered two cups of dried chickpeas with two inches of water in a large mixing bowl and let them sit overnight (about 11 hours). I then simmered the chickpeas for just over two hours. My simmer was not well controlled, sadly, and a few chickpeas did burn. Alas! I had to add water once (also not bad). Also, I did not wash the beans after draining them from their simmer, as I'm still trying to soften the texture without making them mush.

The yield on two cups dry beans is 5 1/2 cups cooked.

I then dress it with the following:

3/4 cup parsley
2 large garlic cloves (pressed)
1/3 cup lemon juice (two small lemons)
1/4 cup olive oil
kosher salt to taste

It is possible I overdid the chickpeas this time, but this is one of those "only time will tell" dishes. It tastes different on day two and day three, etc. It is usually best on day three. The last two times, I had to add salt. I salted a little more heavily this time, including adding a little salt to the simmering water.

UPDATE:

I've found that soaking longer actually works much better than cooking longer. I was soaking about 10-11 hours originally. Now I went to a 13 hour soak and the chickpeas turned out a much better consistency after ONLY 1 1/2 hours of simmering.

No comments:

Post a Comment