oh the delicious hearty chickpea,
oops! the ode is suppose to come at the end of the blog.
chickpeas, also known as the garbanzo bean (spanish language origin) originates in Turkey and can be found in archaeological findings dating back 7,500 years old. from my favorite book (that i seem to quote every entry) chickpeas are known to be good for the pancreas, stomach and heart. i was thinking to myself that chickpeas look like little hearts, so it was also nice to read in Healing with Whole Foods that the author indicated the same characteristic.
Fact: Chickpeas come in varying sizes and colors (such as red, white, black and brown).
Fact: Romans used to eat garbanzo beans in a variety of way, including roasted!
Fact: roast in the oven and then grind up and you have gram flour!
Fact: gram flour (known in mandarin as jidou liangfen) is used to make some pretty yummy noodles in many parts of China, including Kunming and Lijiang.
ok too many facts for me to keep up with.
thanks to Healing with Whole Foods, wiki, encyclopedia.com and a lot of travel blogs. look them up yourself.
I initially thought that the best way to cook garbanzo beans was to soak them for a day and then boil them, before adding them to other delicious cooking methods. it seems that most garbanzo beans that are canned have been boiled in advance. i have not decided whether others agree with the boiling method, but i will continue to be on the lookout. So many recipes call for simmering and stir frying, both of which i think are great cooking methods, but not if the chickpeas will end up too crunchy. But what is this part about roasting chickpeas and pairing it with your favorite spices? My mind is exploding. There are so many ways to cook this legume!
so back to the ode...
oh the delicious hearty chickpea,
you are also called garbanzo,
you are shaped like a heart,
don't you know?
you are nutty,
you get soft,
but strong is your fiber content
and protein!
i heart you, oh hearty chickpea.
may you continue your travels
to influence your diversity on the world.
yay!
leave me a writing tip...
