Thursday, July 12, 2007

ten minutes and a can opener



Who needs 30 minutes? Last night I got home too late to do any real cooking, and since J-Cat was going to be working into the wee hours I didn't want to bother with take-out or delivery. So I opened the cupboard and cobbled together a meal that I have no name for. Chickpea Stew? Garbanzo Bean Surprise? All I know is that the hardest thing about this meal was opening three cans, and it really wasn't half bad. J-Cat ate it cold when he got home and he seemed to really like it, but he could have just been starving.

I don't know if I can offer much in the way of a recipe, nor do I know if I necessarily want to. It was just 2 cans of chickpeas, 1 can of chopped tomatoes, a couple of minced garlic cloves, and a bunch of spices. I think I put in cumin, coriander, oregano, turmeric, dried red pepper flakes, salt, pepper. But honestly I was really doing that grab the spice bottle and toss some in thing and any number of other things might have gone in there. In the end, I'm not sure I'd choose to make this again over my infinitely more successful Chickpea, Fennel and Chicken Stew (I'll post that recipe some day), but it literally only took 10 minutes to open some cans, toss them in a saucepan and simmer until warm. The rice took longer than that. If you think about it, it's really not so bad for a lazy dinner, and it's actually a really healthy and hearty one.

1 comment:

~Molly~ said...

I love meals like this! Think you have nothing to eat then, vwaaa-laaa! The other night I had some new potatoes, canned salmon and squash. Add a few dairy ingredients, some spices and a couple slices of bread and it was a meal worth remembering. I ended up boiling the potatoes, making salmon patties and a squash casserole that my children(fickle pickles that they are) inhaled!!