When I made my ‘Saag Casserole’ last week it called for gram flour, which is made from chickpeas and unrelated to Graham flour, as a thickener. I was hoping to find it in the bulk section, which is where I usually buy miscellaneous whole grains, flours, and nuts that I don’t plan to use regularly. However, it wasn’t to be found so I invested in a whole bag from Bob’s Red Mill. Ever since then I’ve been searching for something else to make with it (aside from the hummus recipe on the side of the bag).
I stumbled upon a recipe for Red Onion, Chile and Gram Flour Bread, an unleavened flat bread that at least at the recipe level sounded as addicting as Naan. Of course I usually try to make my meals a little bit more balanced than JUST bread so I decided I’d make a version of Goddess Garbanzos, based on the Eat, Drink, & Be Vegan recipe, to go with it, hence, chickpeas 2 ways. However, I adapted my Goddess Garbanzos to be a little sweeter and to incorporate a homemade Green Goddess dressing rather than Annie’s Naturals Goddess Dressing. I prefer to make my own dressings from scratch because it makes it easier to customize to your own tastes and dietary needs AND cut down on the number of bottles in the fridge (of which there are too many in mine). However it does seem that Goddess dressing can take on so many variations (there’s a whole thread about this on Chowhound) so feel free to substitute with about 3 tablespoons of your favorite version instead.
Garbanzos in Homemade Green Goddess Dressing
Ingredients:
1 teaspoon green goddess dressing mix (I like Penzeys which is a salt-free mix of green onion, sugar, basil, celery flakes, minced garlic and dill weed.)
2 teaspoons water
2 tablespoons non fat plain yogurt
2 tablespoons low fat mayo
1 teaspoon grapefruit vinegar (I like Trader Joe’s California Grapefruit)
Freshly ground pepper & salt, to taste
¼ cup chopped celery
1/4 cup chopped apple
2 tbsp chopped red onion (or to taste)
2 tbsp dried cranberries
1 cup cooked chickpeas
To Make the Dressing: Combine 1 teaspoon dressing mix and 2 teaspoons water in a medium bowl; let the mix rehydrate for 5 minutes. Stir in the plain yogurt, low fat mayo, and grapefruit vinegar until well incorporated. Add ground pepper and salt to taste.
Add the celery, apple, red onion, cranberries, and chickpeas to the dressing and stir well to combine.
Makes about 2 servings.
Note: If you don’t have grapefruit vinegar I’m sure white wine vinegar would work just fine with a splash of citrus. I just happen to have had this bottle of vinegar forever and have been searching for ways to use it up.
The Verdict: I loved my version of Goddess Garbanzos. It reminded me of a meat-free Waldorf Salad. Even though my recipe is not vegan, I still think it’s quite tasty. As far as the Gram Bread goes, I think it has potential, but the recipe needs some tweaking. They tasted delicious straight out of the skillet, but a little dense. I think some baking powder or yeast could have helped them have a lighter, texture. I definitely want to tweak this though because I love the undertones of the gram flour, it adds a savoriness to the background.
