Thursday, February 7, 2008

Chickpeas Romesco With Garlic-Saffron Rice

Wow! I chose this recipe from V-con just because I had so many chickpeas in the freezer. Little did I know that I would be making a classic dish. It was amazing. Definitely dinner-party worthy. Super easy to make too. To get started you make the sauce with roasted red peppers and canned fire-roasted tomatoes. Get it all pureed and cooking, then add some white wine, thyme, rosemary and red wine vinegar. At the end, you stir in the chickpeas and some ground almonds. It's a Spanish-style dish, and it definitely has some new and different flavors going on.

As the cookbook recommended, I served it over garlic-saffron rice. I had never used saffron in cooking before, but I always noticed it in the spice section at the grocery store. It's pretty expensive, but if it keeps relatively well, it will last quite a long time. I loved the rice. It turned out beautifully. I made some roasted asparagus to go with the chickpeas and rice. Just drizzled with a little olive oil and sprinkled on some salt. Perfect.

So, I finally listened to Colin's new album yesterday. Wow. It's definitely different than his previous works. That is to be expected though, since this is his first time working with a producer. His three previous albums were written, performed and produced by him. That is certainly impressive. So, The Water definitely sounds more "produced", but it's still awesome. I'll be listening to it daily for a while for sure. Now he just needs to get a US tour organized!

5 comments:

carrie said...

Your V-con kick reminds me of my obsession with ED&BV awhile back!

I saw a good review for these Chickpeas over at Eat Air too.....I really don't want to buy the book, 'cause I'm not much of an Isa fan, but if my library doesn't get it in soon I think I'll have to break down and get it (I was hoping to spend my money on some more of Dreena's books though)!!

Susan Chipley said...

I had been feeling like I couldn't come up with anything good. Since I got V-con, I've just been going nuts with it. I have ED&BV on order, but it won't ship for 1-4 weeks. I can't wait!

I have to say, I've never made anything bad from VWaV or V-con. I think if I did, I could repair it enough to make it good. However, I'm steering WAY clear of the chickpea and broccoli casserole!

carrie said...

I just bought Vegan Planet tonight, and it's loaded with things I want to try. I can't wait until DH gets back adn I can start cooking again!!

I admit, I picked up V-con and put it back several times. There were some pretty tempting recipes in there.

HopSkipJump said...

You're starting to influence the meals in our house. I just made vegetarian chili with ground round and he ate it. In fact, he actually liked it.

This is the boy that has three food groups:
1) red meat
2) BBQ sauce/ketchup
3) wine

You're helping me bring him back from the dark side. Now that I've got the o.k., I'll start trying some of your recipes.

Susan Chipley said...

IF: SWEET! That's awesome.