Crazy cheap, low in fat, zero cholesterol and high in iron and protein; the chickpea is pretty magic! Plus you can use them to make a huge variety of yummy foods from the classic falafel or curry to chocolate mousse and meringues! Here's some quick recipes using under 5 ingredients!
100 grams (about half a can - easily edible in a day) of chickpeas contain:
38% of your daily protein
68% of the fibre you need
34% of your iron
28% of your magnesium
25% of your potassium
and
10% of your daily calcium
They are a very sufficient meat replacement in a veggie/vegan diet. It is also a less resource intensive way of getting protein than meat and produces less green house gas emissions. Replacing a meat dish with a chickpea dinner will reduce your carbon and methane footprint!
I am now going to share a few chickpea recipes that are low hassle and don't have many ingredients!
Number One: Chocolate Mousse!
This chocolate mousse recipe uses TWO ingredients. The water from a standard tin of chickpeas and 240g of dark chocolate. The water from chickpeas is called aquafaba and it's made from similar proteins in an egg white. Its a much cheaper, vegan and zero cholesterol version of egg whites plus it's pretty much finding a use for waste!
So here's what the mousse looks like
What I did was slowly melted 240g of orange infused dark chocolate. I then set it aside to cool. Whilst the chocolate was cooling I drained the water from a can of chickpeas into a mixing bowl and whisked it. If you have a an electric whisk please use it unless you fancy a 20 minute arm work out (aka working for your food!).
Whisk until the mixture is stiff and forms peaks that stay upright. When it is fully whisked (don't worry it can't ever be over-whisked!) slowly and bit-by-bit fold it into the chocolate mix. The best time to do this is when the aquafaba and chocolate are the same temperature so leave your melted chocolate about 30mins to cool and work in a warm kitchen so the aquafaba isn't too cold!
Set in the freezer smaller containers for at least a few hours and tahdah!
Number two: Cheat Falafel!
It's cheating because I use Just Wholefoods Organic Falafel Mix which only costs me £1.30 from my local Co-op and wholefoods shop.
I love this mix! It's got partly cooked chickpeas in it and means you don't have to buy all the seasoning plus it's ready so quickly. It makes between 6-8 individual falafels and you can store the mix in the cupboard forever so perfect for an emergency, forgot to go shopping dinner.
So you add 225ml of water to your mix that is sat in a saucepan. You also add a table spoon of any vegetable oil and, if you fancy, a couple of teaspoons of lemon juice (although they don't particularly need it).
Heat the pan slowly on a low heat with the lid on for about 5 mins. Make sure you stir it regularly. Once its thick and gloopy, take it off the heat and leave it to cool.
Once it's cool roll into falafel balls and fry in a pan with a few tablespoons of hot oil. Fry until they're golden and crispy all over.
Then you can put them in a pitta or eat with a side of couscous!
This is how I eat mine:
Number three: Simple Chickpea Curry
You can make this using the left over chickpeas from the chocolate mousse! This is super quick!
All you need is:
- A tin of chickpeas
- 600ml of tinned chopped tomatoes
- 1-3 tablespoons of curry paste (depends on how spicy you like you curry!)
- Spinach!
Put the chickpeas and tomatoes and curry paste into a sauce pan and mix well. Put it on a low-medium heat and let it simmer with the lid on for around 15-20mins. Keep stirring and if it's getting dry add a bit of water and turn down the heat. In the last couple of minutes stir in a few handfuls of spinach.
Serve on a bed of whatever rice you fancy. For extra protein try a rice a quinoa mix!
Here's mine anyway:
I hope you enjoy my simple, magic recipes! There's so much more to so with chick peas. I am yet to try chickpeas 'aquafaba' meringues but many people have so google it. I'll let you know when I make some!
