How to Turn a Can of Chickpeas into a Restaurant Meal (3 ways).

Today I'm sharing three restaurant-quality dishes, and they all start with a humble can of chickpeas. We've got a vibrant show-stopping dish that is perfect for guests, an easily meal-prepped but wildly delicious lunch, and we're gonna get started with a quick dinner that I make on busy weeknights, fried chickpeas with yogurt sauce and herby breadcrumbs. Despite containing just nine ingredients, most of which are pantry staples, this dish honestly tastes better than most meals you'd get at a restaurant. You're gonna start by grabbing a can of chickpeas, obviously, and then drain and rinse them, and then pat them dry really well, because you don't want water and oil to mix together in a hot pan. We'll let those dry off while we get started on the yogurt sauce, which is something you can definitely make a few days ahead of time if you want. First, we need some yogurt, and this is a plain-flavored coconut yogurt. It's tangy and creamy, kinda like Greek yogurt, and then I'm adding a couple pinches of lemon zest, some lemon juice, a clove of garlic grated right in there, and salt and pepper. Make sure to give it a taste and adjust it to your preferences. You can refrigerate that until you're ready to use it, and be sure to save your remaining lemon zest, because we're gonna use that in just a minute. Moving on to our gremolata breadcrumbs. This is one of those components that sounds fancy, but it's actually very easy and quick to make. Get a little bit of olive oil in a frying pan over medium-low heat, and then you're gonna add in some panko breadcrumbs. At first, you can stir occasionally, but be sure to stir pretty frequently once they start to turn color. You're looking for them to be golden brown. It should take three, maybe four minutes. At the very end, you're gonna stir in some parsley and the reserved lemon zest, along with a pinch of salt and pepper, and you wanna stir pretty constantly for 30 to 60 seconds. As soon as it smells incredible, and it will smell incredible, you can take it off the heat. Give the pan a quick wipe, because we're gonna use it again to fry our chickpeas. All right, this is the main event. You're gonna get a generous amount of olive oil in the pan over a medium heat. Once it's shimmering, we'll add one large shallot that has been sliced thinly, but not too thinly so that it doesn't burn. Season that with a pinch of salt, and cook these for two and a half, three minutes, or until the edges just start to pick up a little color. You don't wanna take them too far yet, because they're gonna cook for a while with the chickpeas. Toss the chickpeas really well in the oil, and if you want extra crispness and browning and flavor, which, you know, I always do, drizzle in another tablespoon of olive oil right on top. Season with some salt and pepper, and then I've got three fat garlic cloves that I've smashed with the flat side of my knife. This is gonna give us a subtle, savory, sweet garlic flavor, not that pungent flavor you would get from minced garlic. And a couple of dried red chilies. I've just lightly snipped these open with scissors. And that way, they can release their heat into the oil, but very gently, so. From here, just stir and shake the pan occasionally in order to get even browning and to prevent burning. It should take about eight to 10 minutes until the chickpeas are beautifully golden brown and the shallots are deeply brown and almost caramelized. All right, now it's time to plate. So take your yogurt sauce and smear it across a plate or a shallow bowl. You want a nice, thick layer that the chickpeas can kind of nestle into. Pile those fried chickpeas on top and then finish with the gremolata breadcrumbs. This is plenty delicious by the spoon. It is perfect as a sharing plate, but I can't resist trying it with a slice of sourdough. This one is from Wild Green, the sponsor of today's video, but more on them later. I do not have words for how good this dish is, but please, please try it out. I think you will love it. And it's made with just nine ingredients. It takes 20, 25 minutes to make, so you really can't beat that. For our next recipe, we're shifting gears into lunch and we've got another low effort, high reward recipe, my favorite chickpea salad sandwich. Okay, so this recipe takes just 20 minutes to make. There is no cooking involved and it makes a big batch, so you can meal prep it and enjoy it all week long. We're starting in the food processor, which makes this recipe super quick. In goes some red onion and celery that has been just very roughly chopped up, a big handful of fresh dill and some capers. These are gonna give us this nice briny pop throughout the salad. Make sure to use the pulse function because we don't want to blend this into a paste. We're just looking for everything to be finely chopped. Now in go two cans of chickpeas that have been drained and rinsed. And same thing here. You wanna pulse, not blend, until they're broken down into little pieces. We want texture, not hummus. Some bigger bits, some smaller bits. That's what makes this feel like a real sandwich filling and not a smooth paste. Transfer this to a large bowl. And from here, we can just build the dressing right into the bowl. It starts with some dill pickle relish, which is doing a lot of heavy lifting here flavor-wise. It brings a tangy, slightly sweet briny punch that you get from a classically good deli sandwich. We'll also grate a clove of garlic right in there, some lemon zest for that bright citrusy note, plus a little bit of the juice, a teaspoon of Dijon mustard, and some vegan mayo. This is what makes the sandwich filling creamy and rich and a little bit nostalgic, the way a great sandwich should feel. I'm going with half a cup here because I want it to be extra creamy, but you can scale it back to a third of a cup if you want something lighter. Mix this up really well, and then give it a taste. See if it needs any more salt or lemon or mustard until it tastes right to you. Now for the bread. And I think this step makes a bigger difference than most people realize. This is the ciabatta sandwich roll from Wild Grain, the sponsor of today's video. It is fresh out of the oven, still warm to the touch, and it is some of the best sandwich bread I have ever had. If you love having good quality bread at home, but don't have the time or the patience to make it from scratch, Wild Grain is perfect. They deliver slow-fermented artisanal breads made in small bakeries, as well as fresh pastas directly to your doorstep. All you need to do is open your freezer and pop it into the oven. It couldn't be simpler. Personally, I am a huge fan of Wild Grain's vegan box, naturally, but they have so many options and you can get $30 off your first order. Just use the link in the description box and use code Nisha at checkout. And you will also get free croissants for life. Yes, they have vegan croissants, and yes, they are exquisite. Okay, so normally I toast my bread, but since we have freshly baked bread, there is no need to do that today. This part is optional, but if you want a restaurant-quality, very nice deli-quality sandwich, spreading the bread with a little vegan butter definitely helps. Scoop a generous amount of the chickpea salad onto your bread. I like to use this little ice cream scoop just to make it look nice and cute. And then use whatever sandwich fixings you have. I've got some heirloom tomatoes from the farmer's market, and I always season with a little salt and pepper so everything tastes well-seasoned. Add some romaine or crisp lettuce leaves, sliced cucumbers, shaved carrots, whatever you have in your crisper drawer. Admittedly, I am not the best at slicing sandwiches, so I had Max help me out with this one. Just gotta be gentle with it, is the key. Here, you can take over and pretend like you did it right now. Eating time. All right, so I got a little more of that on my face than I had anticipated, but I don't care, because it's such a freaking good sandwich. It's creamy, but bright. It's got a nice little bite to it. And it's something that you would absolutely pay money for at a sandwich shop or a restaurant, but luckily, you do not have to. You can make it right at home. It's gonna be super quick and easy, and it's gonna make you actually look forward to eating lunch. Our next recipe is marinated chickpeas with beet hummus, greens, and crispy garlic. It's vibrant, it's beautiful, it has a lot of layers going on. Very restaurant quality in the comfort and budget of your own home. Now, you have two routes from here. If you wanna go the quick and easy option, you can absolutely buy your favorite store-bought hummus, and dinner will be ready in like 20 minutes. But I told you I was gonna show you how to make restaurant-quality meals, so we're gonna make our beet hummus from scratch. Let's start with the beets. You need one smallish-medium beet for this recipe, but I'm gonna roast the whole bunch so I have leftovers that I can use in salads or whatever else later this week. Be sure to leave a little bit of this stalk intact as that will prevent them from bleeding out that red color into the oven. Very lightly rub them with just a couple drops of olive oil, add to a baking dish, and add a half cup of water, which is gonna help the beets stay tender without drying out. You're gonna roast these at 425 Fahrenheit for 45 minutes if your beets are small, and about an hour if they're larger. While those are in the oven, let's continue with the rest of our hummus. And if you want great hummus but still want the convenience of using canned chickpeas over dried, you have to first simmer the canned chickpeas in order to soften them up. That's because canned chickpeas are designed to be firm, which might be great for salads, but it is not great when you want super smooth, silky hummus. I also add a quarter teaspoon of baking soda to soften them further, but that is an optional step. In about 20 minutes, the chickpeas will be super soft and it really makes a big difference. So we've got our beets roasting, our chickpeas simmering for the hummus, and that gives us plenty of downtime to work on the marinated chickpeas. Yes, we are using canned chickpeas in two different ways in this recipe. Start by thinly slicing four fat garlic cloves with a sharp knife as evenly as you can. Or if you have a mandolin, this is a lot easier to get even thin slices, but always, always wear that safety glove so that you keep your beautiful fingers intact. Look how cute. The only other prep we need to do is to lightly crush some coriander seeds. A mortar and pestle works great, or you can put them in a Ziploc bag and give them a whack with a rolling pin. And if you don't have coriander seeds, don't worry. You can skip them or you can use cumin seeds for a different flavor profile. To make the fried garlic, add a few tablespoons of olive oil and sliced garlic to a cold frying pan. We're starting with a cold pan because it gives the garlic enough time to fry evenly instead of burning on the outside too quickly. Let them go for three to four minutes until the edges are just turning golden. And add in the crushed coriander plus some Aleppo pepper. This is a mildly spicy chili flake from Syria. It has a little bit of a fruity, smoky sweetness to it. It's delicious. And you want to stir constantly for about 30 seconds. At the end, the garlic should be lightly browned, but definitely not dark. Pour this mixture over a fine mesh sieve set over a bowl that has our can of chickpeas, which have been drained and rinsed. And we're going to use both parts, the spiced oil and the fried garlic. I like to spread the garlic out on some paper towels just to help them crisp up a bit more and then season with a pinch of flaky sea salt. And now you have these utterly delicious, dangerously snackable fried garlic chips. Toss the chickpeas with that delicious, warm, spiced garlic oil. Season with some salt and pepper and a bit of lemon zest and a squeeze of lemon juice. Give this a good toss. And then you can set these aside to marinate while we finish the hummus. Once the beets are fork tender, let them cool for a few minutes so you don't burn your hands. But then you can just run them underwater and the skins will slip off super easily. I am wearing gloves so that I don't end up staining my hands blood red, but the gloves are totally optional and the stains will eventually go away. I've also drained and rinsed the simmered chickpeas. You want them to be soft enough that you can squish them between your fingers. And if you see any loose skins, go ahead and pick those out. Add them to the food processor while they are still a bit warm and blend for a minute or two until you've got a smooth puree or paste. In go the roasted beets plus our remaining hummus ingredients. We've got some chopped garlic, tahini, of course, since this is hummus, a bit of the zest from this behemoth of a lemon, plus three tablespoons of the juice, a little bit of ground coriander and cumin. This is going to very nicely complement the coriander in the fried garlic, plus some salt and pepper and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, if you'd like. Blend everything until it's completely smooth. You might need to scrape down the sides as you go a couple of times. And I like to finish by drizzling in a little bit of ice water as it loosens the texture and just gives you this very luscious consistency. And the name of the hummus game is to taste and to tinker, and then to taste and to tinker, and then to taste and to tinker until it tastes perfect to you. Now take your beet hummus and smear it across a shallow bowl or a plate, just like we did with that first recipe in the yogurt sauce. This is the same technique. It instantly makes everything look like it came out of a fancy restaurant. And now for some greens action. Add a few handfuls of arugula or really any seasonal salad greens that you like. And I like to chop or tear some fresh dill into the mix. I just really love dill and beets, but you could also do parsley or basil or cilantro, just some good olive oil and vinegar or some leftover lemon juice is fine. Or if you have leftover spiced garlic oil in that bowl of chickpeas, you can drizzle that on top, pile on the marinated chickpeas and scatter those crispy garlic chips on top. Now, how bad does that look? Scoop up with some pita and enjoy your incredible restaurant quality meal. This dish has so many fun flavors and textures, the crispy garlic chips, the smooth, creamy hummus. It works together so well. And hopefully by now you have seen that you can turn a simple can of chickpeas into a gourmet restaurant quality meal with a few techniques and a few pantry staples like garlic, lemon, and olive oil. You can get all of the recipes from today's video linked in the description box below. Let me know in the comments of which one is your favorite and I'll see you in the next video. Bye.