Slow Travel Sunday Small Bites: SSB# 19 - Chick Peas

This week's ingredient is Chick Peas and it was selected by me! :) It is the last ingredient in the Slow Travel Sunday Small Bites Cooking group which started on September 6.

I decided to pick Chick Peas because although it was an ingredient used in AnnieNC's delicious Couscous Salad, I never actually used it because I mistakenly used Sweet Peas rather than Chick peas. I didn't realize that Chick Peas were Garbanzo Beans. That was the first mistake...the second involved a pan of chicken broth and a pot of already cooked Couscous...:) I thought Annie's recipe was great and my salad (thanks to Annie's great recipe) ended up tasting delicious despite my mistakes. So when I joined the Sunday Small Bites, I decided to pick Chick Peas to make up for my mistake and also because I thought it would be a great ingredient for an appetizer dish.

I decided to go with a recipe that I found on the Internet called Chick Peas Crostini from the What's Cooking America website. I thought it was a very easy and tasty dish to make. And you'll be happy to know that I was mistake free!

Ingredients:

12-inch loaf of baguette bread
1 (15-ounce) can chickpeas (garbanzo beans), drained
1 carrot, cut into small chunks
1 small onion, quartered
2 celery stalks, cut into small pieces
2 sprigs flat Italian parsley
4 sprigs fresh thyme
1 teaspoon salt or to taste
2 cups chicken stock or broth
Extra-virgin olive oil
Balsamic Vinegar

Instructions:

Cut the baguette bread into 10 slices (I cheated and bought pre-sliced baquette bread from my local Bristol Farms store). In the oven or on a grill, toast the bread.

In a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, add the chickpeas, carrot, onion, celery, parsley, thyme, salt, and chicken broth. Bring just to a boil, then cover, reduce heat and cook approximately 8 to 10 minutes or until the vegetables are tender. Remove from heat and drain the beans and vegetables, discarding the liquid and thyme stems.

Transfer chickpea mixture to a food processor. While processing, drizzle some olive oil into the mixture until a chunky smooth texture is attained.

To serve, spread a thick helping of the chickpea mixture onto each slice of toasted baguette bread, then arrange them on serving plates. Drizzle each with olive oil and then balsamic vinegar. Makes 10 slices.


During the past 3 1/2 months members in the group shared so many delicious and creative appetizer recipes and I learned so much from the experience. Thank you so much to all the very talented Slow Talk Sunday Small Bite Members for sharing all of your recipes and expertise. I had a lot of fun, I got a lot of great appetizer recipes to try and I learned a lot from the experience.

For more Sunday Small Bites (SSB) recipes, visit the Slow Talk Website.