Bright Sycamore: Recipe: Peppers and Onions with Chickpeas

This last weekend Levi and I took an impromptu trip to the big city for some fun, relaxation, and entertainment. We had a great time and we ate some great food (including my favorite: sushi!), but at the same time, that great food we ate counted as eating out. And as anyone who cooks at home every night knows, eating out for a few days leaves a stomach feeling overly full, clogged, and a bit icky.

So when we got home on Sunday evening we really wanted something light that used only whole foods. We had some chickpeas left over from a curry dish I'd prepared the previous week, so we started with that. After rummaging around in our fridge and using some fresh produce a coworker gave us (always take advantage of those!), this is what we came up with:

Peppers and Onions with Chickpeas

Ingredients
2 c. cooked chickpeas
1 green pepper, roughly chopped
1 large tomato, chopped
1 large onion, roughly chopped
1 jalapeno pepper, diced
1 garlic clove, diced
1 tbs. oil
1/2 tbs. basil

Directions

1. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Once hot, toss in the onions. Saute for about 2 minutes. Add the garlic and peppers and saute for about 5 minutes, or until pepper begin to soften.

2. Add the chickpeas and saute, uncovered, for about 10 minutes, or until the mixture is as browned as you'd like. The more you let the mixture brown, the crispier and warmer it will taste.

*Hint: If you want that crispy and warm flavor like we do, you have to do the hardest thing in cooking: leave the pan alone! The more you move the food around, the less it will brown. Trust the pan, and let it sit for at least 30 sec. between tosses. It's harder than it sounds!

3. Once you've achieved the browned quality you desire, add the tomato and the basil. Fresh basil would be best, but dried is also fine. Saute this for about 2 minutes, or just until the tomato is hot. Salt and pepper to taste, then serve with bread or rice or the grain of your choice.

*Hint: This dish works best without the juice from the tomato. Once you've quartered the tomato, run the pieces under cold water and scrape out the juice and the seeds. Then you're left with just the delicious flesh of the tomato.

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This dish was just thrown together, but it turned out to be a wonderful, spicy, and light meal for two. Also, I had it for lunch the next day and I added a fried egg to the top. So good!

Here are the pictures of our process!

Our chickpeas that we boiled ourselves days before. Canned chickpeas would work well, too.

Rough chop the onion.

Dice the garlic.

We used a green bell pepper, but if you want it to feel warmer, try a red bell pepper.

One jalapeno was enough for us! Add more if you dare...

Garden tomato from a coworker. Working with lots of gardeners has its perks!

Saute the onions, garlic, and peppers.

Add the chickpeas and let it start to brown. We seasoned ours with salt and pepper at this point.

It will be hard, but you have to leave it alone! Get that delicious browned flavor!

Once it's browned to your desired point, add the tomato chunks. Levi likes it like this, but I probably could have seared the mixture even more! Bring on the brown!