I really wish I could come up with nicer names for some of the food I eat. 'Chick peas and fake meat' really doesn't sound appetizing at all. I guess I could try to sound fancy by using some Lebanese Arabic like Fattet Hummus, (warm chickpeas) but I don't know how to translate 'fake meat'. That's probably for the best.
This was a really fast lunch. I'm trying to prep some lectures for the next few weeks but I was starving, and my little red-haired man is out for the day. So I whipped up this Lebanese-inspired bowl of goodness.
Fattet Hummus with Fake Meat (still sounds really unimpressive)
1 can of chickpeas rinsed
1/2 a medium onion, diced inaccurately
2/3 cup of fake meat burger crumbles (I use Morningstar Farms)
2 cloves of garlic, minced, crushed, or shot through one of those presses
juice from 1/2 lemon
3-4 tbsps olive oil
black pepper
salt
tarragon (or better: fresh oregano or fresh parsley)
1 medium-sized whole-wheat pita
two carrots
half a green pepper
3 precocious-looking kalamata olive
1. Add 2 tbsps of oil to a pan and fry the onion on medium heat until it's translucent (not brown).
2. Add the chickpeas, 1/2 of the garlic and the fake meat.
3. Cover and let this cook for a few minutes until the fake meat is thawed and warmed through and the chickpeas are hot.
4. Break open the pita and pop it in the toaster/toaster-oven
5. Mix the lemon juice and remaining garlic and oil in a small bowl and emulsify (I love that word. It means beat the crap out of it until the oil becomes little tiny globules that are suspended in the lemon juice).
6. Pour the lemon/garlic/oil dressing over the chickpea mixture, cover and let it simmer on low heat until your pita is toasted.
7. When you're ready, add salt and pepper to taste and a decent pinch of tarragon, if you have any. Even better would be fresh, chopped flat-leaf parsley, but again, it's winter and my garden is under 2 feet of snow.
I had this with two carrots and half a green pepper cut into sticks and a few olives. All in all, it took me about 20 minutes, tops, including bringing up the can of chickpeas from the basement pantry. So for anyone who knows me well enough to ask: "Why would you write a blog when you have so much else to do?" I say: "It takes me as long to write up my meals as it does someone else to decide what to get from a take-out menu."
So there.
And shut up, I AM TOO working.
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