Lemon Garlic Chickpeas and Mushrooms

This recipe from the post punk kitchen was really simple and delicious; I'll definitely be making it again.

Sauteeing and then simmering the mushrooms gives them an amazing chewy texture, and the mushrooms and thyme give the dish a savory, Thanksgiving-y flavor, but the lemon adds a little twist to that familiar flavor combination.  I treated it like a stroganoff and ate it with whole wheat rotelle, but it would be equally at home with some brown rice.

I made several small changes of convenience: dried for fresh thyme, chickpeas for favas, button mushrooms for creminis, white onion for red, etc.  I'm not sure I used 3 full cups of chickpeas, which might have been the reason that the final dish was a little too salty.  In any case, I'd recommend using less stock and then adding salt as needed at the end.

Finally, there wasn't all that much of a lemon flavor after cooking it so long.  Consider adding the lemon juice and zest at the end, right before serving.

Lemon Garlic Fava Beans and Mushrooms

(from the ppk)

Ingredients

2 tsp olive oil

1 small red onion, cut into thin half moons

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp dried thyme

pinch salt

8 oz cremini mushrooms, sliced in half

2 TB breadcrumbs

2 c vegetable broth (or sub in some water if you're worried about saltiness--see above note)

juice and zest of 1/2 a lemon

lots of fresh black pepper

3 c cooked chickpeas (or two 15 oz cans, rinsed and drained)

slivered green onions, additional zest for garnish (optional)

Instructions

1. Preheat a large pan over medium heat. Saute onion in oil with a pinch of salt for 5 to 7 minutes, until slightly browned. Add garlic, thyme, and pinch salt, and saute one minute. Add mushrooms and cook to release moisture, about 5 minutes.
2. Add bread crumbs, toss to coat everything and toast crumbs for 3 to 5 minutes. Add veg broth, black pepper, lemon zest and juice and beans (consider adding lemon juice and zest later, at the end). Bring to a boil. Let reduce and thicken, 7 minutes or so. Taste for salt and seasoning and serve, topped with green onions.  Serves about 4.

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What do I eat when I'm not trying new recipes?  Well, for one, I eat a lot of quick stir-fries with a starch, a protein, and a green, like this one (at right) of collards (with onion and garlic), chickpeas, and soba noodles, with tamari and chili-garlic paste.  If you use canned chickpeas it's almost instant.













And I also eat a lot of leftovers, sometimes recombined.  For example, after last week's recipes, I had the following:

On the left, a green salad made with that wheatberry pilaf with eggplant and cashews--rather incongruously accompanied by marinated tofu--and on the right, lemony legume soup, at home at last with avocado and cilantro.