And the secret ingredient is...

Admit it. Somewhere in your kitchen or pantry, there is an ingredient tucked away that has been there a Long Time. You bought it with the best of intentions. You were going to make something healthy/delicious/exciting. But you didn't, and the ingredient is still there.

For me, that ingredient is chickpeas. A bag of uncooked chickpeas, to be specific. I don't even remember why I bought it. A desire to make hummus, perhaps? Maybe it was on sale? Who knows. But this week I decided enough is enough. It's time to cook with chickpeas.

Allrecipes.com (the best recipe site out there, in my opinion) has a handy feature where you can put in ingredients you want and ingredients you don't want in a recipe. Input chickpeas: yes, tahini: no (to avoid getting 3000 hummus recipes) and I came up with a bunch of tasty-sounding stuff. I feel a little bit like I'm on Iron Chef! Mr. Chairman, here is what I have to offer. (Note: I cooked the raw chickpeas according to the package directions before making any of the stuff below.)

Dish 1: Roasted Chickpeas

I followed one reviewer's advice and dry roasted the chickpeas instead of using oil. Not sure that was a good idea. Or maybe I just didn't roast them long enough. They came out a bit soft, not crispy, and they were pretty bland--seasoning didn't stick to them. I would be willing to try this again using oil.

Dish 2: Quinoa with Chickpeas and Tomatoes

I had all the ingredients on hand for this (gotta love that), except that I had to sub lemon juice for lime juice and I chose to use garlic powder instead of raw garlic. Oh, and I left out the cumin--it just didn't sound like a cumin-y dish to me. The results: very tasty. I ate is as a side dish for lunch but it was so filling that it could stand on its own. Zach loved it, too (he took some to school for his own lunch) and commented that it would be tasty with some feta thrown in.

Dish 3: Garbanzo Bean Chocolate Cake

This was not actually part of my original chickpea recipe search; rather, I found it when I was looking for a dessert to make for a friend whose son eats gluten-free. I made a cake for myself first to make sure it was tasty. (Gotta love a good excuse to make a cake.) It was pretty yummy, not to mention easy. And much higher in protein than your average chocolate cake.

Thanks to my two cakes, I ran out of chickpeas before trying the final recipe I wanted to make, Chickpea and Pasta Soup. I will get around to it someday. Perhaps next time I make a rash purchase of a bag of raw beans. :)