Monday, October 7

Moroccan Chickpeas and Zucchini

Rating: 4.25

OK, so we’re making a conscious effort to eat healthier, lower fat foods. Conveniently, we have several books that have these kinds of recipes in them. And one of them is my favorite cookbook anyway, Appetite for Reduction. I really have no idea why we’ve never made this before now, but there you have it. I’m a soak and simmer dried beans kind of girl, so I made those ahead of time, but canned are perfectly fine too. In fact, it’s what’s called for in the recipe. Anyway, this is one you need to make sure you have enough time for – it needs a little while to cook, but the prep is pretty minimal. I sort of screwed up early on in the cooking process, but it wasn’t that big of a deal, I just neglected to add the spices and sauté them with the onions, garlic and ginger. No biggie. I also kind of forgot to put the bay leaves in. And the salt, which I actually did remember about halfway through cooking and added it then. Sigh. It was my first time making this, so I was bound to have a mishap of some kind. I’ve been on a little bit of a “try new recipes” kick lately it seems. So, once everything was in the pot (I was glad it all fit, because for a minute I didn’t think it would), I left it alone to simmer and I made a salad to go with it. I also made some Israeli couscous to serve it on. I love that stuff almost as much as I hate regular couscous. It’s a texture thing. Ick. I was really happy with how this turned out, despite my mistakes. Oh – I also didn’t have any mint because the store was out so I had to omit that as well. I reduced the amount of crushed red pepper because it seemed like it would be too much, but I would have been cool with it being spicier. Still, it was a really flavorful and delicious dinner – I’m a sucker for food from that part of the globe anyway – and it was a nice, hearty early autumn meal. It makes a LOT so there prepare for leftovers for lunch that will make your coworkers jealous.