Picking Chick Peas

My friend, Laura Hoffman, had a bunch of us over for New Year's Eve Day. She served several stews including a Moroccan stew that I absolutely fell in love with. I begged her for the recipe. Seriously, I probably made a total fool of myself, but I loved this stew. I hadn't planned on it, but when she sent me an email today with the recipe, and I realized I had the ingredients, I decided I was going to try it right away. I think it would be great school lunch. The stew calls for onions, garlic, diced butternut squash, tomatoes, chickpeas, and assorted spices. I'll give the full recipe below. Well no problem. I got the onions and garlic sauteed, and the squash all cleaned up. I added the tomatoes and the vegetable broth...and the chickpeas. And like any good cook, I stirred them all together. Then I went back to the recipe to get the exact measurements for the spices, and gasp! I wasn't supposed to add the chickpeas until it had all been cooked. Of course! It made sense once I thought about it because the chickpeas would have cooked to mush if I put them in the crock pot for six hours. What was I going to do?

I realized I had only two options: go ahead and cook it with the chickpeas in the pot, or pick out the chickpeas one by one. I'm someone who when I make a mistake crocheting, even if I made the mistake many many rows back, I will still pull it apart and do it over. So, yeah, I picked most of the chickpeas out. I'm just glad I hadn't put the spices in yet!

It's funny. I don't know the etymological story behind the names for chickpeas, but when I was picking them out, in my mind, they were being called by their other name, garbanzos. I don't know, but I think garbanzos sort of sounds like a swear word, don't you?

I'll let you know how it turns out tomorrow.

UPDATE: I've decided that I'll probably make several of the things I suggested in my last post, but not the sea bass. Do you know how much sea bass costs? It's not in my budget. I think the first thing I'll make is the squash soup (It's that time of year). However, I need to get over to Spirit Lake sometime to get the leeks, so it'll be a while before I get to it.

Moroccan Slow Cooker Stew Ingredients 1 spray(s) cooking spray

1 small uncooked onion(s), chopped

1 clove(s) garlic clove(s), minced

1 cup(s) uncooked carrot(s), baby

1 medium uncooked butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut into 1/2-inch cubes*

1 cup(s) canned crushed tomatoes

1/2 cup(s) vegetable broth

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

15 oz chickpeas (15 oz), drained and rinsed

1/2 tsp table salt

Instructions

Coat a small skillet with cooking spray. Add onion and garlic; sauté for 5 minutes.

Place squash in a 3-quart or larger slow cooker (crockpot). Add sauteed onion and garlic, carrots, tomatoes, broth, cinnamon, cumin and red pepper flakes.

Cover and turn on to low heat; simmer for 6 hours.

Add chickpeas and salt. Stir, cover and heat for an additional 5 minutes.

Yields about 1 1/3 cups per serving.