Ingredients
- 1 lb dried garbanzo beans
- three medium garlic cloves
- dried cumin
- small purple onion
- 2 celery stalks
- two carrots
- coarse salt
- cracked pepper
- Fresh lemon or lime (I switch off each time I make the spread)
Garbanzo Bean Spread
Directions
- Night before, wash and load garbanzo beans into an appropriately sized bowl to burp overnight.
- Next morning, drain and rinse beans and return them to the slow cooker. Pour 6-7 cups of water into the slow cooker.
- Peel and press the three cloves of garlic into the slow cooker and stir to incorporate.
- Add tsp of salt, cracked black pepper and cumin, then stir.
- Set slow cooker for 6.5 hours on low. (My unit has an automatic warming function for two hours.)
- When beans cooked, drain and rinse. Then pour into a larger mixing bowl. Set aside to cool.
- Dice the celery, carrot and purple onion. Set aside.
- Mash the garbanzo beans and add the diced celery, carrots and purple onion. Mix to incorporate.
- Sample to find out if more salt, cracked black pepper and cumin are necessary. Add to taste.
- Juice the lemon or lime then add two to four tbs of the juice to the spread. Mix and add more if necessary.
- Put in fridge to cool for about a half hour to 45 minutes.
- Serve, once chilled.
- Add your side dish and enjoy.
Summary
So, I was looking for an easy meal to make for a lazy Friday night. I poked around the various vegan and vegetarian recipe sites. Came across spreads and found garbanzo bean spreads. Read several of the recipes and decided to make it but with our favorite ingredients. One time I paired the spread with homemade french fries. Another time the pairing was with a chopped romaine, cucumber, olive, and tomato salad. All washed down with one of our staple red wines. You can make an open faced sandwich with the spread or just scoop onto a plate and enjoy with the salad or fries. Sorry, hard to figure the number of servings because sometimes a serving is a half to 3/4 cup. Sometimes just a spread on gluten free crackers. A pound of dried beans is a lot of finished spread. The idea is to make a lot so we can eat as dinner, lunch or a snack. The prep time is just for cleaning and dicing the celery, carrots and purple onion; then incorporating them into the mashed garbanzo beans.
