no matter how I cook chickpeas they always remind me of my mom, making the usual prologue when she was making ‘extraordinary food’- at least in my childish eyes at that time; “today we’re eating chickpeas cause they’re nutritious and delicious! you’ll see!” and guess what, she’s right.. you’ll see!

the recipe

ingredients

• 500gr. chickpeas
• 150gr. tomato sauce
• 80ml. olive oil
• 580ml. water
• 4 carrots
• 2 medium sized onions
• 2 garlic cloves
• 2 laurel leaves
• 2tbsp. parsley
• 2tsp. oreganο
• salt
• black pepper
• extra water and salt for soaking the chickpeas

directions

the night before cooking the chickpeas you need to soak them as it’s not possible to eat them otherwise. put the chickpeas in a bowl, add water and a little bit of salt. make sure that the water not only covers the chickpeas but there is a lot more even when the chickpeas will be double in size (after soaking all night). the next day they should be ready to cook.

• Preheat your oven to 180 degrees C
• Put the chickpeas in a 30x20cm deep baking pan
• Add the tomato sauce and the olive oil
• Peel the carrots, onions and garlic cloves and chop them in fine slices. the carrots slices should be 0,5cm thick and the onions 0,3cm. add all of them in the pan
• Wash the parsley and finely chop it, you should have really small pieces. add it to the pan as well
• Add the oregano, salt, pepper and laurel leaves
• Mix all the ingredients in the pan using a big spoon
• Add the water in the end. It should cover the mixture perfectly, meaning that you’ll need perhaps slightly more or less water (depending on your pan and ingredients)
• Cover the pan with aluminum foil and place it in the oven
• Bake for 60′ and afterwards taste the chickpeas, they should be soft, ready to eat. if not add some more water and bake a little bit more using again the foil.
• When ready remove the foil and bake for 20′ more so that they get a nice crispy look but still keep a juicy sauce inside!

Enjoy!

Tips!

• If your oven is not strong enough, then it will take lots of hours to bake the chickpeas. In that case (or when you are really hungry!) you can pre-boil the chickpeas so that they get soft (but not to lose their shape) and then follow all the above mentioned steps of the recipe but with less baking time. You will need around 30′, enough time for the sauce to be ready.