Lemon and Herb Chickpeas: From Dry to Delicious

These chickpeas are probably the most delicious chickpeas I’ve ever cooked! They’re inspired by a Bon Appetit recipe but with a few tweaks I’ve made them into a lemon and herb feast. You cook them from dry so they soak up all the flavour of the lemon rind and herbs as they cook. Cooking them from dry means you will need to potter around for an hour or two while they cook making this dish the perfect meal prep recipe to do on a Saturday or Sunday.

There’s something a little romantic about slow cooking while you enjoy the winding down of the weekend. It’s also a nice to take that time, if we have it, to connect a little more to our food. It’s so easy that cooking becomes a chore and something that needs to happen fast, fast, fast when we go about our every day life and it feels important to invite some slowing down to the kitchen once in a while.

Don’t worry though! You don’t need to do this week upon week to enjoy these yummy chickpeas. They are great to freeze and whip out on a day where you definitely don’t have time to be slow cooking. You can also store them in the fridge for a week roughly. In addition they taste great as a hummus. Simply pop them in the food processor or use a stick blender for ease and add some tahini before whizzing away. Yum!

Malin x

Lemon and Herb Chickpeas

Serves roughly 6.

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup dried chickpeas, soaked in plenty of water for 24-48 hours

2 onions, sliced into half moons

5 garlic cloves, sliced

1 lemon, rind as well as juice of one half

1 bay leaf

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp dried thyme

0,5 tsp dried rosemary

0,5 tsp dried sage

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Big pinch of salt

Black pepper

A handful of fresh parsley, chopped (optional)

METHOD:

Soak your chickpeas 24-48 hours in advance in plenty of water. If you want you can add a tbsp of apple cider vinegar to the soaking water to aid the process. Change the water if it changes colour. How long you soak them can/will change the cooking time, i.e. if you soak for a longer period you can cook for a shorter time.

Once soaked drain and rinse the chickpeas and add them to a sauce pan. Use a vegetable peeler and peel long pieces of rind off the whole lemon. Add all the other ingredients into the pot with the chickpeas except the lemon juice and fresh parsley if using it. Cover by 2 inches (5 cm) with water.

Bring to a boil and then turn down to a simmer. Allow to simmer for 1-2 hours. The cooking time will depend on two things; how fresh your dried beans are and your texture preference. Check on them once in a while, at least after the first hour. You might need to add a little extra water depending on your cooking time and the velocity of your simmer. Taste the chickpeas to see if you are happy with the texture and when you are take them off the heat.

Before serving I remove the bay leaf as well as the lemon rind. If you like the taste of lemon ride you can of course leave it in though. Squeeze the lemon over the chickpeas in the pot and if using parsley add it in as well. Give it a good stir and serve.

I like to serve mine over rice with a big colourful salad with mustard vinaigrette on the side.