Easy Supper: Pasta with Fresh Garbanzo Beans, Olives & Bacon ♥

Fresh Garbanzo Beans aka Chickpeas ♥ AVeggieVenture.com

Garbanzo beans aka chickpeas. For good reason, they're rarely found fresh, only dried and canned. That's because they take forever to extract from their pods, an hour per pound and then yielding only a couple of scant cups of fresh beans! Before launching this task, I recommend a friend to help, a cold drink to savor and a shady spot on a hot summer day ... then settling in to simply enjoy. There's no rushing this job, it's not hard, just tedious.

But tasty? Indeed! The wrinkled-brain peas come one or two to a pod, some large and white and woody (toss these) and some small and underdeveloped (these too). And they're good raw, if a little raw-tasting.

Pasta with Fresh Garbanzo Beans, Olives & Bacon ♥ AVeggieVenture.com
For cooking, I tried them steamed with a little butter (good!) but used most in this easy pasta supper. I also tried sautéeing them with the bacon but they really didn't cook enough that way, the liquid seems very important, plus the bacon flavor overpowered the delicate fresh flavor.

Oh. And don't worry about access to fresh garbanzo beans for this great supper pasta, just use frozen peas which I have a thousand times before.

MORE FRESH GARBANZO BEANS FROM GREAT FOOD BLOGS
101 Cookbooks ... boiled fresh garbanzo beans
Erin's Kitchen ... grilled fresh garbanzo beans

PASTA with FRESH GARBANZO BEANS, OLIVES & BACON

Hands-on time: 15 minutes
Time to table: 25 minutes
Serves 4

This is a "concept recipe" so please do adjust to suit your own taste!

Cooked pasta (I used a beautiful spinach pasta from a local Chinese grocery that cooks up in only five minutes)

2 cups fresh garbanzo beans (or frozen peas)

3 - 4 slices bacon
Green onion, chopped
Pitted olives
Plenty of black pepper (don't skip the pepper!)

Cook and drain the pasta. Steam the garbanzo beans (no need to steam the frozen peas).

In a large skillet, cook the bacon til just beginning to crisp. Add the onion and let cook a bit. Add the olive and let warm through. Stir in the steamed garbanzo beans or frozen peas, then the pasta. Season with pepper, toss and serve.




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BEYOND HUMMUS: MORE FAVORITE RECIPES for CHICKPEAS

Chickpea Cakes with Cucumber-Yogurt Sauce
~ Chickpeas with Tomatoes, Spinach & Feta ~
~ Chipotle Chickpea Salad ~
~ Chickpea Gumbo ~
~ more recipes with dried beans, lentils & other legumes ~
from A Veggie Venture

~ Broccoli Rigatoni with Chickpeas & Lemon ~
~ Chickpea & Chicken Salad ~
~ Simple Hummus ~
~ more recipes with dried & canned beans ~
from Kitchen Parade, my food column

A Veggie Venture is home of "veggie evangelist" Alanna Kellogg and the
famous asparagus-to-zucchini Alphabet of Vegetables.

© Copyright Kitchen Parade 2007 & 2015


Alanna Kellogg
Alanna Kellogg

A Veggie Venture is home of "veggie evangelist" Alanna Kellogg and the famous asparagus-to-zucchini Alphabet of Vegetables.

Comments

  1. Never even seen fresh garbanzo/chickpeas before - and from the sound of it, I'm not sure I'd have the patience to shell them:)

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  2. All the chickpeas I have seen are sorta beige not green

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  3. Pille ~ Yes, patience is called for. With the right company, the right setting, I can see how it'd be wonderful.

    Jeff ~ You've likely never seen fresh garbanzo beans then, Jeff. If you look closely, the shape is the same, however.

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  4. Yummy! What a lovely light dish. I saw the fresh version a few times at our Farmer's Market but never thought they were Garbanzo beans. I was actually thinking of doing a check in my Eng - German dictionary. How crazy is that! But now I know what these are. Thanks for that!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I've never seen fresh chickpeas! Great photo - thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  6. In India, fresh chickpeas are eaten by the kilos....In fact, I just came back from India having eaten this - raw as well as stir fried.

    ReplyDelete

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Thank you for taking a moment to write! I read each and every comment, for each and every recipe, whether a current recipe or a long-ago favorite. If you have a specific question, it's nearly always answered quick-quick. ~ Alanna