Lunch today came about by accident.
I was cooking chickpeas, and totally forgot about them, until they’d boiled dry – thankfully Pete rescued them before they burnt. As a result, I was left with soft chickpea pulp, completely unsuitable for the moghrabieh I’d been planning to make.
A quick search on Google turned up an interesting recipe at Smitten Kitchen for smashed chickpeas. I was inspired by the idea, but used completely different flavourings (basically whatever I could find in the fridge and pantry).
The original recipe used tinned chickpeas, but my overcooked ones were already soft, making it easy to mix in the additions. I added:
- spring onions, sliced
- sundried tomatoes, chopped
- a couple of anchovy fillets, finely chopped
- freshly ground black pepper
- preserved lime rind, chopped, and..
- piment d’espelette (spicy pepper powder, that Anna brought me from France)
Very tasty piled high on toasted slices of homemade ciabatta, and finished with a drizzle of lemon-infused olive oil!
PS. Spice Girl, you really should have come for lunch.
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
That looks delicious!
Smashed chickpeas- ok- but what you added is art- pure art!
(Of course, Pete is the hero of this post! No one ever saves my forgotten pots from boiling over or burning!)
Yum, I love chick peas. I had a cecina – chick pea pancake in Lucca today. It is a speciality of the area.
Yum, I love the sound of that too Debra :)
That looks so tasty!!!!
I love making hummus (no tahini because my son’s allergic to sesame butter and oil). It’s great to see an new way to use the chickpeas too.
What a great idea, and good catch Pete!
These would make a lovely little tapas dish too, Yumm…
Wouldn’t they, excellent idea Bec :)
Chickpea heaven! Thank goodness Pete got there in the nick of time – and what a great lunch resulted – I’ve never had preserved lime rind, mmm sounds puckeringly good :)
I finally cooked up the frozen blackberries from last summer and forgot them on the stove, similar tale, they are dripping now to be turned into jelly in the morning.
I was a bit hungry – now I am a lot hungry! That looks like a delicious lunch and I’ve got similar ingredients on hand. Thanks!
Ditto :) I should know better than to read my fave bloggie buddies posts hungry, I really should know better :)
Sounds yummy,
my lime tree is loaded this year so now I now what to do with them
Well done turning a mistake into an opportunity.
Chickpeas are a staple in our house, we love them! Your lunch looks fabulous.
I make a Lebanese dish called melting chickpeas, they are cooked down, just like you did Celia, and then added to a pan with the large onion you have sauted, add a cup of cooking liquid & 4 cloves of chopped garlic & teaspoon of cumin & cooked for 15mins. Fabulous with roast meats or on a mezze plate.
That looks delicious and such a quick lunch/snack idea. I love hummus so I bet I’ll like this.
Heidi, Becca and Jo, you’re all right of course, Pete was the star on this occasion, or I’d have lost the chick peas AND a good pot! ;-)
Deb, I adore chick peas in all forms – just the other day I commented that I think they might be my favourite food! I must look into dishes using besan (chick pea) flour, I know it’s used in a lot of savoury Indian dishes as well…
Sonia, thank you! I think we’ll be making this dish more often – it was delicious!
Amanda, hope you enjoy this! I’m sure it could be made with canned chick peas as well…
Viki, our lemon tree is still a baby, it must be lovely to have a loaded lime tree! We also make lime cordial (hence the blog name) – you might enjoy the recipe (it’s from my very first blogpost!):
https://figjamandlimecordial.com/2009/02/23/fig-jam-and-lime-cordial/
Jason, thanks for stopping by! Always lovely to meet another Linda W fan! :)
Suz, that sounds fabulous, and it would have been a great solution to my forgetfulness! Thanks for the recipe, I’ll definitely give it a go – love all the flavours in Lebanese cuisine!
Claire, I reckon you’d like this too! It’s less oily than hommus too! :)
I love chickpeas and don’t use them nearly enough. Far too often The Monkeys tastes dictate what lands on the table….need to sort that!
Tasty looking lunch Celia :-)
Oh Celia, what an outstanding taste explosion lunch. Seems you are brilliant at creating recipes by accident.
:-) Mandy
Spicey pepper power & preserved lime, just these two alone would get me going Celia, but altogether this would be awesome – incredibly inspiring :)
Great idea. I used to make great big batches of hummous and then freeze it but it wasn’t as nice as fresh. Now I boil up the chickpeas in large quantities and freeze those – it makes excellent hummous that you can just whip up to order very quickly. Have a few chickpeas left over from last batch that are waving at me from the fridge – I’m going to go freestyle like you did….there are some chillies begging to be used.
YUM I love chickpeas and this looks so delicious!
We are lucky enough to have a lime tree that’s producing lots of limes (it’s growing in our chicken yard) and I’ve been meaning and meaning to trawl the web for lime cordial – it just never occurred to moi that ‘fig jam lime cordial’ actually had the recipe – duh! Thank you Celia. Great looking lunch – and so good for you. I must try the salted limes too. I’ve used Annabelle Langbeins’ recipe for preserving lemons – using oil and some juice – it’s not bad, you can use the pulp as well. I used some last night for Atlantic salmon mixed through pasta with some chopped cherry tomatoes and a dollop of pesto on top, that wasn’t bad either. We made some lime marmalade at the weekend but it is a bit bitter – not sour – just bitter.
Hello Celia — I just wanted to see if you’d like a Babble badge for Readers’ Choice award to put on your blog as people have nominated it for Babble’s best food mom blogs of 2011. If you’re interested, please email me.
Thanks,
Hannah
Boy, that looks and sounds fantastic – thanks for the idea.
Sounds delicious (minus anchovies). Chick peas are so versatile. Your own bread, your own preserved lemons, how very satisfying.
I like chickpeas in any shape or form! I like to toast them in the oven with a little olive oil, salt and spice until crunchy.
WOW, that looks awesome Celia!!! I love chickpeas, however hubby does not. My hubby watches out for me too. He is always saying ‘Did you set the timer?’ as I usually wander off and get distracted when I’m baking something. Good thing you came across the perfect recipe to use those chickpeas in. I use the canned chick peas to make a chickpea hummus that I just love on crackers or flatbread.
WHat is an accident becomes a work of art…this looks wonderful and appetising.
Brydie and Sally, Barbara at Harkola taught me that you can soak chick peas and then freeze them before boiling – since then I rarely use tinned ones, as it’s so easy to boil them up in just an hour or so!
Mandy, thank you! Yes, I’m a bit of an accidental cook.. ;-)
Anna, thank you – it was tasty – lucky it worked! :)
Mrs Bok, Norma, Doc, thank you! :)
Jan, I’ve never had much luck with limes under oil – they always end up going mouldy on me! I can’t wait until our lemon tree starts producing! ;-)
Hannah, thank you very much! I don’t put badges on my blog on principle, but I am very honoured to be nominated! :)
Choc, you’d like this, I reckon. The limes and chick peas give the meal an exotic touch…
Maz, I grew up on crunchy chick peas, but have never tried making my own. Thanks for the suggestion…
Melanie, isn’t it nice when our hubbys keep an eye out for us? I get so distracted sometimes that if it wasn’t for Pete and a very loud kitchen timer, things would be burning all the time! :)
I love accidental recipes like this! I’ve made some not too bad creations this way (ie whatever is in the cupboard) :P Happy Easter to you, Pete and The Clones! :D
Wow this looks so amazing and sounds delicious :) I love preserve lime rind :)
Ha ha, I love an accidental recipe, especially ones that have chickpeas as the main ingredient… maybe you should get distracted when you’re cooking more often!
Bondi Girl, it rarely turns out that well! Usually there’s burnt garlic involved, and the dish is inedible! ;-)
Yes true, I’ve done that many times before… the ironic thing is when it does happen I’ll have to throw together some make shift kind of dish that usually involves a tin of chickpeas and random veggies I have left in the fridge!
Ooooooh waw: these smashed up chickpeas with all of the rest of the ingredients look irresistable & perfect to enjoy in the evening at the terrace with friends & wine!
MMMMMM,… Excellent food! :)
Thanks Sophie! They’d be nice with gf crackers or bread as well!
Ah it looks so much nicer than it sounded. We had been talking about laksa or really good Thai as lunch options before you offered me “overcooked and slightly burnt chickpeas smashed onto toast”. You can’t be surprised that I declined the offer can you?! Now seeing the pictures I can agree that I should have cone to lunch! Next time.
Ps: Andrew is most impressed with your special chocolate blends. Rocky road Easter egg got the thumbs up from both kids, even Sam the non- chocolate eater.
Looks like a wonderful tasty and healthy lunch!