[Navy salad]

OK, here it is: Chickpea Dal "c" = cup; t = teaspoon; T = tablespoon Assemble the following:

• Either 1 cup raw chickpeas that you then cook ahead of time or a 25 oz can of chickpeas (incidentally chickpeas = garbanzo beans, which begs the question of whether these are peas or beans, but I'll leave that to someone else to work out).
• 3 T ghee (clarified butter)
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1/2 t black mustard seeds (or use yellow if you don't have black)
• 1/2 t cayenne (if you like it spicy, if not cut back to your tolerance)
• a little less than 1/2 t turmeric (like 3/8)
• 1/2 t chili powder
• 1/2 t black pepper
• 1/8 t fresh ground cloves or 1/4 t stale (mine's always stale...) or 4 crushed cloves that you later fish out
• 1/2 t powdered cardamon
• 1/2 t cinnamon
• 1 t salt
• 1 T lemon juice
• 1 tomato, finely chopped (last time I made this, I substituted salsa and it came out very good)

Saute the mustard seeds until they start to sputter. Add onion and saute lightly for an additional minute or two. Then add all the other spices and fry 2 minutes more. Then stir the onion/spice mix, chopped tomato, lemon juice and salt into the cooked chickpeas, mix well, and simmer until the flavors all blend together, like 20 to 30 minutes. [EDIT] Whoops, almost forgot to mention the final step, which is to buzz up the dal using a hand blender. I've made this with other dals (such as yellow split peas or red lentils) and it turns out well, but I think it's best with chickpeas. I know some may cringe at the 3 T of ghee, but that's half the secret to this recipe. If you insist, you can use a mild olive oil, but the difference is noticeable. Also, if you reduce the amount of oil, it will lose of lot of the richness (but still pretty good). I haven't tried dehydrating this, but I plan to do so soon and will update this recipe to tell how it turned out.

[Dogpatch]

Thanks, I'll try this out soon. My hubby's diabetic, though, so I'll probably skip the ghee since he's supposed to cut out saturated fats. Maybe use mostly canola oil, plus a little bit of mustard oil to get a characteristic Indian flavor.

[dicentra]

[sarbar]

[Navy salad]

[Dogpatch]

Yup, I've got some chana dal and that's what I'll be using--I'll try regular garbanzos another day. Chana dal has the lowest rating on the glycemic index of any legume, which means its starch metabolizes really slowly in the body and so doesn't spike your body's sugar as much. Gotta say Sarbar's idea for roasted garbanzos sounds pretty delicious.

[nuclear_eggset]

sarbar, how long do those roasted chickpeas last? I'm stocking up on stable food (or frozen food) for the baby. I've got vast quantities of homemade chicken soup and chili, am on to making muffins and a quinoa tabboleh, but having those around sounds great!

[Tom]

With more recipes this could become the thread length of the food forum.

[sarbar]

[dicentra]

[Allison]

If this becomes the Thread Length of the Food Forum, it will truly be what I deserve. So let it be written, so let it be done.

[Ski]

[Navy salad]

[Ski]

well.. it's not like I've been sitting here on the edge of my chair waiting... was poring over food threads and saw that and figured I'd ask. might try it out when I get back. thanks! bk

[Trailhead]

I eat out of my cooking pot. Even when I bring a freeze dried meal, I'll end up simmering it in the pot a bit rather than hoping everything hydrates in the time suggested on the side of the bag. I like to cook and dumping hot water in a bag doesn't do it for me.