Easy Chickpea Salad

Ever look inside the pantry or fridge and try to come up with an accompaniment for dinner.?

Me too and last week I was looking for an easy side dish salad to serve with fish. My ingredients were garbanzo beans (chickpeas) and red and green peppers, which seemed a good fit for a salad. Here's what one found online at Epicurious with a few personal modifications. 

This is a very easy salad and the basic recipe can be modified to your personal taste. For a spicy version, add some Sriracha sauce. Try swapping out the lemon juice for lime juice and use other cheeses (feta, Asiago) instead of Parmesan, or mix in chopped fresh cilantro and chopped red onion or shallot. For a curried chickpea salad, omit the cheese and add curry powder to taste, dried currants, sliced green onions, and shredded carrots.

I substituted Asiago cheese in this recipe and used dried herbs vs. fresh.

Chickpea Salad with Lemon and Parmesan

• (1) 15 to 15-1/2-ounce can chickpeas (garbanzo beans), rinsed, drained
• 1/2 chopped green pepper (personal add-in)
• 1/2 chopped red pepper (personal add-in)
• 2 TBSP chopped fresh basil
• 2 TBSP chopped fresh Italian parsley
• 2 TBSP fresh lemon juice
• 4 tsp extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 small garlic clove, pressed
• 1/3 C (packed) freshly grated Parmesan cheese (Asiago cheese for me)
• Coarse kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

1. Combine rinsed and drained chickpeas, chopped fresh (or dried) basil and parsley, fresh lemon juice, extra-virgin olive oil, and pressed garlic clove in medium bowl. 
2. Add grated Parmesan cheese and toss gently to blend all ingredients thoroughly. 

Season salad to taste with coarse kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. The salad can be made 4 hours ahead, covered and refrigerated. Serve chilled or at room temperature.

It was good the first night and even better a day or two later.

Perfect Together - Soup & Bread

Baby, it's cold outside — really, really cold (but this is winter) — perfect time for soup and bread.

How cold?  Single digits to below 0 in many Northeast states after a weekend snow storm; this week some Southern states are covered in snow.

Perfect weather for homemade soup and fresh-baked bread. And, the easier both recipes are to prepare, the better I like them — and if you do too, then you might like this combo as much as we did.

The soup recipe was easy and started with package of Hurst's Beans 15 Bean Soup®. The package has instructions for stove top cooking, but an online search gave instructions for crock pot/slow cooker preparation. 

All that's needed aside from the dried beans package is a 15 oz can of tomatoes, 1 large onion, a garlic glove, chili powder, juice of a lemon (bottled works fine). You can add chicken or ham; my choice was cut-up chunks of ham

Instead of cutting and pasting into this post, just follow this link for the crock pot instructions. FYI, the bean cooking time did take longer than listed on the website. I used the high setting for at least 2 hours. But the results were a delicious soup.

Nothing goes better with a bowl of soup than some fresh-baked bread, but as neither Grenville or I wanted to go out, I searched for an easy recipe online . . . the easier the better, and one that was also a no-knead bread meant I had struck gold!

Yes, I know the bread on the left looks so much nicer than its counterpart on the right. I did not have two 1-quart bowls, so used 1 and 1.5 quart sizes; the larger bowl had the nicer looking bread.

What makes this recipe from Alexandra's Kitchen so special is explained on the website' here's some highlights: the recipe can be started a few hours ahead of when fresh bread is needed, it bakes in buttered Pyerx® glass bowls that don't require preheating, and baking time is under 45 minutes and don't forget, it's a "no-knead" recipe (definitely a "keeper"). 

Here's a cut version of the smaller (less pretty) loaf.

It was delicious with a wonderful crust. It was a perfect accompaniment for the bean soup for last night's meal. 

The Alexandra's Kitchen website has all the information you need: instructions, videos, and the option to print the recipe for My Mother’s Peasant Bread: The Best Easiest Bread You Will Ever Make and you will not be disappointed. As noted in the recipe and I can verify, this is a very wet dough which was somewhat challenging to get into the bowls. 

While you're on her website, check out some of the other recipes. I know that more will find their way to our dinner table.

White Bean & Kale Soup

When it's cold (and snowy) outside, homemade soup is on The Frog & PenguINN menu. This hearty soup made me think of something that's offered as the first course at a family-style Italian restaurant, it's that "homey" and warming. And, it's also healthy.

Substitute store-bought broth if you don't have homemade vegetable (or chicken) stock. I didn't have homemade and used store bought. The ingredients can be used as a guide, as just about any veggies will work in this soup; swap Swiss chard or any other leafy green, like spinach, for the kale, depending on your preference.

You can add more beans or greens for a jam-packed bowlful of soup and it is perfect for winter days.

White Bean & Kale Soup

• 1 whole garlic head
• 4 tsp olive oil, divided
• 1 C finely chopped onion
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1 C chopped carrot
• 1 C chopped and peeled potato
• 1 C chopped celery
• 2 TBSP chopped fresh rosemary
• 4 TBSP tomato paste
• 8 C homemade vegetable stock OR los-sodium chicken stock, if unavailable
• 2 (16-ounce) cans, drained cannellini beans
• 6 C chopped fresh kale
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 2 TBSP chopped fresh parsley (optional for garnish)

1. Remove white papery skin from garlic, do not peel or separate cloves.  Brush garlic with 1 teaspoon olive oil and wrap in aluminum foil.  Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour (toaster oven is useful).  Let stand for 10 minutes, then separate cloves and squeeze out pulp.  Discard  skins.
2. Heat remaining 3 teaspoons olive oil in large saucepan over medium-high heat.  Add onion and salt; sauté for 5 minutes.  Add carrot, potato, celery, rosemary, and tomato paste; cook for 5 minutes, stirring frequently.
3. Add Vegetable Stock and cannellini beans; bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes.
4. Stir in roasted garlic pulp and kale; simmer for final 10 minutes, until kale is tender.  Ladle into soup bowls. Sprinkle with optional parsley if desired.

This soup was our dinner served with a side salad and Grenville's homemade bread.