thursday thrift: chickpeas

my new weekly installment: thursday thrift.

with thursday thrift i will share & discuss ways to be thrifty in the home and in the kitchen. the purpose of thursday thrift is not just about saving money while still eating good food (though that is a large part of it, i assure you). i want to explore the idea of being more involved in the food i consume, and take pleasure in the act of creating beautiful, practical things with my own hands. i hope you will join me in my exploration of thriftiness in domesticity.

today's thrift:
i love hummus. i often make my own. i'm surprised i haven't written about making hummus yet, but essentially its chickpeas, garlic, tahini, lemon juice, olive oil, salt, pepper. you can use this recipe as a base if you like. but let's go a step further. instead of buying canned chickpeas (garbanzo beans) for your lovely, cheap, homemade hummus, buy them dried in bulk and cook them yourself. it takes a bit of pre-planning, but its cheaper, fresher, and tastes better too.

how to prepare and cook your dried chickpeas:

1: soak the beans overnight (8-10 hours) in a big container of water, in a cool place.*
2: next day, put the beans in a large pot & cover with water, leaving a couple inches at the top.
3: bring the pot to a boil, then reduce heat & simmer. skim off the froth that develops.
4: simmer until cooked. 30-40 minutes. you could want them crunchy for salads, or mushy for hummus, so its up to your tastes.
5: drain the beans. i like to salt them at this point, before i use them or put them in the fridge for future use.**

*one cup of dried chickpeas makes just over two cups of cooked chickpeas.
** adding salt before the beans are fully cooked will toughen the beans

see that froth? skim it off with a spoon. you don't want it.

helpful, related links:
how to cook lovely, lovely legumes - limes & lycopene
preparing dried chickpeas for cooking - ehow.com

hummus may be tasty and exciting, but i realise chickpeas are a dull, boring topic. so come back next thursday thrift, for an epic tale of mystery and colonization...