Photo: Torkil Stavdal
One of my absolute favorites for easy healthy food is “salads” made with grain or legumes. And chickpeas is my winner. It is easy and tasty, not very heavy, and goes so well with pretty much any vegetable I can think of.
- The ingredients are:
- Chickpeas 1 cup uncooked (soak overnight and rinse before you start the cooking)
- Wild rice 1/2 cup uncooked
- Hijiki or arame seaweed 1/4 cup
- Mixed or any color whole peppercorn. Just using the black one is fine too. Depending on how spiced you like it, 10-15-20 or 1/2 -1 full teaspoon.
- 2 Dried shiitake mushrooms, no need to soak them first.
- 3 1/2 cups of water.
- Large pinch of sea salt towards end of cooking – to taste.
Put everything together in one pot. You can add other herbs and spices too of course, just no sea salt until the end of cooking. Ideas for spices and herbs could be my all time favorite, herbs des provence, or basil, or a dash of cayenne could work too. Spices really are up to the individual I think, all foods can have some and food alone tastes good too. Garlic is also an option to add. I personally do not normally use garlic with my chickpeas.
Bring it all to a boil, the lower the heat to a low boil and cook for 45 min. Check the chickpeas and the wild rice to see if it is cooked at about 35 min. You don’t want it to get too soft. If it still needs the last 10 min you can add a little water if it seems to be getting low.
Photo: Torkil Stavdal
Served with marinated kale, sauteed broccoli-rabe, or any green you prefer.
Enjoy.