Bone Appetite

Recipe: Quickest Chickpea and Parsley Salad, Ever

Time for more Garbanzo journalism!

This is insanely quick - 2 minutes start to finish if you have the ingredients on hand - and a really fresh and nutritious salad.

1 can chickpeas, rinsed out in a colander
1 cup of fresh parsley, finely chopped
juice of 1 lemon
about a tablespoon of EVO
1 teaspoon soy sauce
salt and fresh-ground pepper to taste (don't be shy with the salt here, though; a 1/4 teaspoon seems about right)

Toss and serve. May also be chilled to good effect. Serves about four as a side.

I've tried adding in "bonus" ingredients here -- a little roasted red pepper, split cherry tomatoes, etc. -- which are fine, but less somehow seems to be more here.

Recipe: Quick Bruschetta Topping

This one came out of desperation when we had a few spontaneous TGIF guests over and I was completely out of anything to serve them. I grabbed a frozen baguette out of the fridge and defrosted it in the microwave while I put this together. It tasted as good or better than commercial bruschetta topping.

1 can artichoke hearts (not dressed or marinated -- in water, and drained)
3 roasted red peppers (out of a jar, of course)
1 clove garlic
1 pitted kalamata olive
1 T EVO
1 T capers (very optional)

Put the garlic into your blender / food processor (I don't have a food processor, fwiw), then the rest of the ingredients on top, and blend/chop until at a reasonably spreadable consistency. Add a touch more EVO if it's getting difficult to blend. Serve on top of, or as a dipping sauce for, crackers, bruschetta, french bread, or toasted pita points (whatever you have on hand, any port in a storm).

I suppose you could add salt to taste, but I haven't found it necessary.