Raw Food Recipes [Search results for chickpea] 

Thanks very much to the hundreds of people who came out today to my cooking demo at the Boston Vegetarian Society Food Festival! 400 samples of the recipes I cooked today were prepared, but we ran out faster than expected. Apologies to all who were not able to try a sample of what was made today. For those who missed a copy of the chickpea polenta recipes, and for all of those who could not be there with us today, I am posting it below along with a link to the olive oil cake recipe that was also demoed today.

Among the many reasons to love this dish are its elegance and relative simplicity to make, the rich creaminess of a custardy polenta made with chickpea flour, just like the Romans did it hundreds of years ago, and the flavorful, multi-textured bite of mushroom with a light crunch of leek. Serve with sautéed greens or a salad for a complete and beautiful dinner. The cool autumn months when locally foraged mushrooms are available and winter leeks are thriving is the perfect time to prepare this dish.

Look for chickpea flour in health food stores, ethnic food sections or Italian or Indian markets. In Indian markets, this flour is sometimes called chana flour, gram flour or besan. They are all made from chana dal, a cousin of chickpea. Though there are slight variations in texture and flavor, they are perfect substitutes for one another.

4 cups cold vegetable broth
1 ½ cup chickpea flour
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 cloves garlic, smashed, peeled and roughly chopped
½ cup dry white wine (recommend Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin Blanc or Pinot Grigio)
1 ½ teaspoon sea salt
2 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped
¼ teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg
2 large or 4 small leeks
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon olive oil
8 ounces (about 2 cups) sliced wild mushrooms (miattake, chicken of the woods, chanterelle, oyster, morel, porcini, or other)
8 ounces (about 2 cups) sliced domestic mushrooms (cremini, white button, etc.)
2 tablespoons dry white wine
½ teaspoon sea salt
¼ teaspoon ground white pepper
⅛ teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg
¼ cup fresh parsley, chopped

Oil a 9” springform cake pan. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a food processor or blender, blend the vegetable broth and chickpea flour until well combined and frothy. Leave food processor work bowl or blender carafe attached to base unit.

In a large saucepan, warm the olive oil over a medium heat. Add chopped garlic and cook for 3-5 minutes or until garlic is golden and crisp. Pour white wine into pan and stir to scrape up any bits of garlic clinging to pan. Briefly pulse the chickpea-broth mixture before pouring into saucepan. Bring to a boil and then turn down heat to medium-low. Stir frequently and vigorously for 10 minutes. Add sea salt, nutmeg and parsley. Mix well to combine.

Pour polenta into oiled pan, brush the top with olive oil and bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes or until top is golden and lightly crisped.

Clean leeks and slice into very thin pieces, 2-3 inches in length.

Place olive oil in a skillet and toss the leeks in it. Sauté over medium heat for 4-5 minutes or until leeks have wilted. Transfer to an 8x11 baking pan and place in the oven. Stir every 5 minutes through baking time and continue to bake about 20 minutes or until leeks have browned and lightly crisped.

Using the skillet in which the leeks were wilted, heat olive oil over a high flame. Add mushrooms and toss with oil. Cook about 4 minutes or until mushrooms have softened slightly. Add wine, salt, nutmeg, white pepper and stir well to combine. Cook about 2 more minutes or until mushrooms are softened and well coated in spices. Add parsley and combine before turning off heat.

Allow baked chickpea polenta to cool at room temperature about 10 minutes before running a knife around the edge of the pan and releasing the springform. Cut into wedges and place on a plate. Top with mushrooms and finish each wedge with a generous pile of crisp leeks.

Recipe for the olive oil cake with orange macedonia and cocoa nibs may be found at American Feast.

This is the first recipe where I didn't write a recipe to start. I was free-styling. Which is a switch for me. I like to know what I'm making before I make it and alter the measurements and ingredients as I go but I had these chickpeas and I thought it would be fun to wing it.

Fortunately, they turned out to be very good. They are good if you have the munchies, just pop one in your mouth and go about your business.
This recipe is bordering on being falafel. Not too much difference, I rearranged the seasoning a bit. I am eating a lot of chickpeas in my salad for the added protein so I will experiment with more recipes in the future.
Corn was on sale this week, so I missed out on making corn fritters. Maybe next week.
Garden Chickpea Fritters

Makes 25-30 fritters
2 cups sprouted chickpeas
1 cup almonds, soaked for 6-8 hours
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 cup water
1 carrot, peeled, coarsely grated
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
1/2 onion, diced
1 small bunch parsley, chopped
1 tablespoon curry powder
1 tablespoon turmeric
1 teaspoon dried mint leaves
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoon olive oil
Sea salt and black pepper, to taste

1 Combine the vegetables in a large bowl, add lemon juice, olive oil, seasonings and sprinkle with a dash of sea salt and black pepper.

2 Process chickpeas, almonds, garlic and water in a food processor or high-speed blender. Mix until smooth and creamy. Add chickpea mixture to the vegetables.

3 Form the mixture into small ping pong-sized balls.

4 Place on Teflex sheets. Dehydrate at 110 degrees for 2 hours.

5 Roll fritters over and dehydrate an additional 2 hours. The balls should be slightly hard on the outside and soft on the inside.

A couple of lovely ladies have had trouble sprouting chickpeas. Whether they had a foul smell or slimy chickpeas they haven't had much success.
So, I revisited my October posting about How to sprout Chickpeas to double check that the instructions were up to snuff.Over the weekend I sprouted 3 quarts of chickpeas in quart size Mason jars.
In each jar I put 1/2 cup of chickpeas, I filled the jar with water and then I secured cheesecloth with the lid at the mouth of the jar.
The Mason Jars were the only variation I did from the original post. All the chickpeas came out great.
I am eating a lot of chickpeas because of the Raw Fit Challenge. They are high in protein, a good source of calcium, dietary fiber and low in fat. It works perfect for what I'm doing. Don't be surprised to find alot of chickpea recipes in the future.

I enjoy sprouting chickpeas because they don't take long from soaking to sprouting to using.

Here was my timeline.
9 a.m. Friday: soak
8 p.m. Friday: drain soaking water and rinse and drain at a 45 degree angle
9 a.m., 2 p.m., 6 p.m., 9 p.m. Saturday: rinse and drain at a 45 degree angle (This might be a bit excessive for me, it was one of those weekends and rinsing chickpeas seemed to be the only things I could do successfully without fail.)
Noon Sunday:

I noticed the tails sprouting and they were ready to use.
Tip: If you won't be using the chickpeas right away, make sure they are well drained and dry and place them in the frig.

photo by Meetak

I am not sure why the chickpeas spoiled. If I were to guess maybe they were soaked too long or didn't drain well enough. Or it could have been a bad batch.
If anyone else has any ideas or suggestions, please feel free to leave a comment. What did I do with all those chickpeas? I made Garden Chickpea Fritters.

The recipe I will feature tomorrow.
If you have a raw food kitchen question, forward to "Question for the Daily Raw" at yahoo.com.
Coming soon: Is there a substitution for avocados? Tips for being raw and a new mom.

I promise I had the best intentions. I had a beautiful menu planned for you for this Thursday. Each day this week I would focus on a different course for you to seduce your sweetie into a meal he or she would always remember.

The foreplay of the evening would have been the Sweet and Spicy Neptune Salad Cocktail, followed by a bit of cool Cucumber soup or maybe a Shaved Fennel salad with cranberries. Moving on to main event it was a Mushroom Ragu and Chickpea Polenta with Asparagus Rolls. The climax was Cheesecakes Shots with Blueberry sauce.

I like to cuddle after. Do you like to cuddle? I thought you might cuddle with a Fruit Platter of pineapple cubes, strawberries and raspberries with two spicy chocolate sauces for dipping and feeding . One laced with cayenne and the other with cinnamon.

Time escaped me and I really couldn't indulge in such an extravagant venture, you know the juice feasting thing.

Now before you leave in a huff and curse me for being such a tease or so you won't wear "that shirt" that says "I visited The Daily Raw Blog and all I got was this stinking T-shirt"...try this, to soothe the savage beast.

A sweet and fiery concoction that will most definitely set the fires ablazing. Here folks to get your party started is the.....

Sweet and Spicy Neptune Salad Cocktail
2 cups finely diced coconut meat
2 tablespoon finely diced red onion
1 Holland chili (or another red-colored chili or pepper), finely diced
2 long pieces of dried seaweed, broken into small pieces, save extra for garnish
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon coconut butter
Juice of one lime juice
1 teaspoon sea salt
2 lettuce leaf
1 ripe avocado, peeled and cut into slices
A few sprigs of cilantro for garnish

1 Toss coconut meat, onion, chilies and seaweed in a bowl.

2 Whisk together honey, coconut butter, lime juice and sea salt until the honey and coconut butter dissolves a bit, creating a smooth consistency. Pour into bowl with coconut meat. Marinate at least an hour.

3 Place lettuce leaf in the bottom of cocktail glass. Place a heaping amount of Neptune salad on top of leaf. Garnish with avocado, cilantro and a few flakes of seaweed.

Servings: 2

After you finish eating the salad, sip on the juice that have collected in the bottom of the glasses.

Have a very happy V-Day!