FOOD II: Garbanzo beans.

This summer I was thinking how much I like garbanzo beans, but never make them, so I looked up on the net how you soak them, and so I've been soaking and cooking a huge batch of beans (like 2-2.5lbs dried) every week for recipes.

I've made hummus every weak, and I've discovered the trick is boil the beans longer so they're falling apart, since the water in them makes a smoother, nicer hummus, even better than when you put more tahini or olive oil in (which changes the taste).

I hand-mash my hummus, too, with my hands, to give it a rustic feel.

The first week I made a southwestern-type salad, by frying some hot red pepper in olive oil and then throwing in some red onions and corn kernels I had scraped off of a fresh cob and then chopped up tomatillos, and then putting the mix in vinegar to soak in the fridge till the beans were done boiling, at which point I mixed in the beans. That was very tasty.

The second and third weeks I've made an Italian-type salad with chopped up green beans and red pepper. The first week I fried the beans and red peppers but soaked them in too much vinegar for too long, and together with the beans the salad was too vinegar-y and lacking something. So, the next week I googled some recipes and found out that people put in green onions, so I did that and soaked the green bean-mixture in less vinegar before I added in the beans, and that turned out well. I also fried up some minced garlic in oil before slightly cooking the green beans and the peppers and the green onions, which I hadn't done the first week. It was good, only the red peppers didn't get as burned as the first week, which had been nice.

I am enjoying eating so many garbanzo beans. They are very tasty.