Squeezing chickpeas to check for doneness, from the Forks and Foliage Lebanese food blog.
A search for the best way to cook dried chickpeas led us to the Forks and Foliage Lebanese food blog. It’s a fairly new blog with just a few recipes but its author obviously has big plans judging from the professional design and loooong posts (to make room for future in-article advertising, though there is none at this time). This is her best way to cook dried chickpeas: Stir 1 T kosher salt and 1 t baking soda into 4 cups of water and add up to 1 1/3 c dried chickpeas. Soak overnight. Drain and rinse and cook in ample water (about a 4:1 ratio, adding more if needed) over low heat till the chickpeas are just tender enough to break apart when you squeeze them between your fingers, about 2 hours. (Cook longer if you’re using for hummus.) A great deal of foam will rise to the surface when the chickpeas start cooking; skim it off.
Our garbanzos were perfect for a big batch of Chickpea Curry a la Querencia, but we had leftover chickpeas (as well as some intriguingly thick aquafaba, which we’ll deal with in a future post) and wondered what to do with them. Luckily, Gladys has a whole section of chickpea recipes; we tried Maghmour (Lebanese moussaka) which was also a big hit. I should mention we are big fans of Ottolenghi’s Plenty and Jerusalem cookbooks but his recipes tend to be complex with a long list of ingredients. It was exciting to get such great results with simple, straightforward dishes.
We then did a Google search for “maghmour recipes” and you should too, because it turns out this dish is a touchstone of Lebanese home cooks, each of whom has a slightly different version. Take a look at Hungry Paprikas, Vidar Bergum and Zataar & Zaytoun. Start with the maghmour, then stick around for the kibbeh and shawarma. Hours of food experimentation fun and delicious results await you, so check ‘em out!
This guy has a lot of quick and easy dishes:
Good post and nice blogs. I use mostly canned chick peas, the best reason for cooking from dry is for soft creaminess. Canned you could simmer for a long while, or pressure cook I suppose. Coupla things: I didn’t notice a lot of space in Forks & Foliage, but I guess that’s your mad skills. And, is Hungry Paprikas Fluffy Egyptian Rice another San Francisco Treat? https://www.kqed.org/news/11816328/birth-of-rice-a-roni-the-armenian-italian-treat Kinda. “Mediterranean” in any case. Nothing against Rice-a-Roni. Still have it once in a while. Ramen before I found ramen Good luck with aquafaba. A new hobby for you!
By “space” i mean the blogger meanders verbally instead of getting to the recipe (like we do here) leaving lots of real estate to be filed with ads. And absolutely, the rice-and-pasta dish known as Rice-A-Roni is definitely derived from Lebanese style pilaf. I happen to be in San Francisco right now, and every time a cable car clangs by I look up to see if the passengers are all eating bowls of the stuff but for some reason they’re not….