I found this recipe a couple of years ago in one of Melissa Clark’s “Good Appetite” columns in the New York Times Dining Section. I have been in love with it ever since.
If I haven’t told you yet, I love chickpeas. And I mean: Love. Them. I find it nearly impossible not to order something in a restaurant when it has chickpeas served with it. I’ve been known to open a can of chickpeas and just eat the whole thing as my dinner, popping them into my mouth like nuts. They are a perfect little nugget of protein and fiber all rolled into one. It doesn’t get better than that. So when I saw this recipe (which in it’s original calls for white beans OR chickpeas) I knew it was going to have to become one of my staple recipes.
But then it called for onion. Now, I love onion, and in fact am hard pressed to find a recipe of mine that doesn’t call for some kind of onion, scallion, chive, or shallot. But when it comes to a straight-up red, white, or yellow onion I don’t really eat them raw. They just don’t sit right in my stomach. This recipe calls for raw onion, but they’ve been soaked in acid (red wine vinegar and water to be precise) and guess what that does? It completely changes them. They become soft, tender, and mellow while still maintaining their distinctive sharpness.
Overall, the recipe is kind of perfect and you can tell that I think that in the fact that I’ve made few if any changes to it other than upping some of the aromatics. Healthy, tasty and a perfect meal.
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