a love letter to chickpeas
plus: signed cookbooks and some great reading
Monday, April 17, 2023
Good morning afternoon!
Let the bread be free [Grub Street]
The underrated pleasures of eating dinner early [New Yorker]
I hope you’ve had an excellent weekend and are Monday-ing better than me, who is moving slowly after a very fun and packed weekend into a week with seemingly no downtime. What’s a girl to do? Write about chickpeas, it turns out! Wait, hear me out. I’m tired of winter food, impatient for asparagus and peas, but they are still likely weeks away. While dried chickpeas and canned chickpeas have no season, they have a nutty, heartiness that keeps dishes cozy while it’s still, as of this typing cool and rainy, but a lightness in dishes that makes them a perfect bridge-to-spring ingredient. It was hard to whittle down my favorite chickpea dishes to *just* 10, but I hope this leaves you more than inspired.
Cheers,
Deb
I’ve written three cookbooks and I’m a tiny bit biased but I think you, or someone you know who likes to cook or wants to start, would love them all.
Want to buy a signed cookbook as a gift for yourself or someone else? In advance of Mother’s Day, you will be able to order signed cookbook(s) from two different beloved NYC bookstores that ship nationwide. Details:
Books Are Magic: Order signed and personalized [i.e. “To [name]” and/or "Happy Mother's Day!" or "Happy Mother's Day, [name!"] copies of any of my three cookbooks. You can have these shipped to you or can pick them up at one of the two store locations in Brooklyn. Ordering deadline: 4/22.
Strand Bookstore: Order a signed copy [no personalizing this round] Iof my most recent cookbook, Smitten Kitchen Keepers. You can have it shipped to you or can pick it up at their store near Union Square. While the ordering deadline is Mother's Day (5/14), if you'd like it to arrive somewhere by Mother's Day, The Strand recommends that you order by 4/26.
While book tour events have otherwise slowed down, I will be in New Jersey at the Montclair Literary Festival on Saturday, May 6th.
carrot cake with coconut and dates
New: This flourless, dairy-optional carrot cake is hearty, spiced, and totally excused for being a little (cough) late to the April holidays because it's perfect for any day of the year, whether brunch or dessert or just because it's Tuesday and the vanilla bean-flecked cream cheese squiggles are calling to you.
a really great pot of chickpeas
8 arguments for turning a pot of deeply flavorful, deeply economical, brothy chickpeas into dinner -- from a swirl of olive oil or salsa verde, sprinkle of parmesan, handful of wilted greens, spoonful of tomato sauce to burrata or an egg on top or even ladled over grilled garlicky toast. We're just getting started.
crisped chickpeas with herbs and garlic yogurt
This is a Top 5 favorite warm-weather lunch for me -- pan-crisped chickpeas on top of blistered lemony zucchini on top of a salty garlic yogurt sauce, finished with herbs and more lemon juice. It serves exactly one person and it's not sorry about it at all.
smashed chickpea salad
This salad is a forever site (and Deb lunch) favorite, just lightly crushed chickpeas with minced red onion, parsley, lemon juice and zest, enriched with olive oil. It's great straight from the bowl but possibly even better on a slice of toast atop a layer of tahini dressing. (Instructions for all of the above and then some more ideas in the recipe.)
baked feta with tomatoes and chickpeas
Feta, tomatoes, garlic, and chickpeas roast in olive oil until the tomatoes blister and soften, the feta becomes creamy, and the whole mixture is a dream to scoop onto flatbread. It's almost endlessly tweakable. Dinner should always be this easy.
chickpea and kale shakshuka
Eggs baked in spicy tomato sauce with kale and chickpeas, too, so perfect and filling for a cozy spring weeknight dinner.
carrot salad with tahini and crisped chickpeas
Bright with lemon, nutty with tahini, flecked with parsley, topped with almost smoky roasted chickpeas and salted pistachios, this salad makes excellent use of simple ingredients and exactly what I'm craving for lunch today.
ethereally smooth hummus
Is nine extra minutes of work worth it to make the ethereally smooth, fluffy, dolloping pillow of hummus of your dreams? There's only one way to find out. Make it today, snack all weekend, and have the rest for sandwiches and carrot stick swoops all this week.
chana masala
Unquestionably the best chana masala I have ever made, a hint of sour transforms the whole dish. Have it for dinner with rice, toasted naan and/or a dollop of plain yogurt and end your day warm-bellied and content.
sheet pan meatballs with crispy turmeric chickpeas
A dinner packed with flavors, textures, and color. We like to scoop it all into bowls with salted lemony yogurt, lightly pickled onions, and pita wedges and I always wonder why we don't make it more often.
falafel
I once presumed making falafel would be complicated, best left to the experts. Once I learned how staggeringly simple it is -- oh and by the way, vegan, gluten-free, and so quick to assemble, you might decide you have time enough leftover to make homemade pitas worthy of you perfect falafel -- I see exactly no reason not to make it all of the time.
shop my favorites
Ever wonder where I get my cutting boards, paring knives, offset spatulas and more than you see when I cook? I've created a page on Smitten Kitchen with links to some of my favorite kitchen items, the ones I'm asked about the most. I recently added several new favorites I’ve bought in the last year. For each item, I've attempted to provide a range of shopping links so we're not just focusing on one giant retailer.
See you next week!
