The other day, I was at the library when my eye caught a book — on the cover, it said “Forewords by Alice Waters and Michael Pollan.” Well, then! The book, Twelve Recipes by Cal Peternell, can’t be bad, right? Totally right. What an amazing book. This is a quote from the chapter on beans:
Soak some beans now or as soon as you get home. It will give you a feeling of accomplishment for the next 12 hours; no matter what else you’re doing, you’re also home cooking. You are a responsible, cleverly frugal, mature individual who knows what he wants for dinner tomorrow night and has the foresight to make it happen. It’s therapy with a pulse. Sure, it’s geeky, this sort of planning ahead, but in a rustic, chuck-wagon sort of way.
I love cookbooks I can read, cookbooks with fun stories sprinkled throughout to inspire me to try new things. After reading this passage to my husband, I went to the kitchen and soaked some chickpeas. The next day, I cooked them with kelp and sea salt, and I couldn’t believe how delicious they were! I look forward to the day Franklin and Nicholas are both in school so I can spend my morning cooking beans (and other things, obviously).
With the cooked chickpeas, I made this delicious roasted red pepper hummus.
Roasted Red Pepper Hummus by Joanna Steven
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas, homemade or from a BPA-free can
- 2 roasted red peppers
- 3 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1/3 cup organic tahini
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon cumin
- 1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
Instructions
For the roasted red peppers:
- Halve 2 red peppers, scoop out of the seeds, and brush them with olive oil or ghee. Roast at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes, or until the skin is blackened. Let cool, and peel.
For the hummus:
- In a food processor, puree the chickpeas with the garlic cloves. Add the peppers, lemon juice, tahini, salt, and spices.
- Cool in the fridge for at least a couple of hours.
