CHICKPEAS & breaking the rules
This past summer, as I was doomscrolling on Instagram, I came across a bowl of chickpeas that would become a go-to meal of mine. Post is linked below.
Carla Lalli Music is a chef and writer who used to work at the food publication who must not be named — the one whose food styling we still ogle over (sorry). (It’s Bon Appétit if you’re late to the game.) I got her new cookbook, That Sounds So Good, for Christmas, and although there are a number of drool-worthy dishes I’m excited to make in it, my favorite recipe of hers is still her CHICKPEAS. I return to this recipe often because it’s stupid easy and tastes delicious.
BUT WAIT!
A huge thank you to everyone who has shared this little newsletter with their networks over the past two weeks! My goal for January was to hit 100 subscribers, and boy did we hit it. If you are here because you are friends with my parents on Facebook, hello, it is so nice to have you! Like what you’ve read so far? Share it with a friend! Seriously though, I’m so happy people are interested in what I have to say, and I can’t wait to to keep working on Party of One. <3
Back to what you signed up for…
The topic of today’s newsletter is not just these chickpeas. I want to talk about something Carla (and many other great chefs) works into her new cookbook: working with what you have. My favorite feature of Carla’s book is the “Spin It” section at the end of each recipe. “I offer suggestions for ingredients that can pinch-hit if something I’ve called for isn’t available at the store, isn’t something you like to eat, or is something you simply don’t have on hand,” she writes in an introductory to the book. She describes recipes as “living, breathing road maps that you should feel empowered to modify to suit your preferences, cooking, style, and inventory,” and while she’s definitely not the first cook to suggest it, seeing the “Spin It” section in her book is what made me feel comfortable jumping out of my recipe-following comfort zone!
Improvisation
If you know me IRL, you probably know that I’m an avid rule follower. I love order and lists and instructions, so obviously I’m a big fan of recipes. My parents, on the other hand, rarely follow recipes when they’re making meals. My mom’s a big fan of adding ingredients, and my dad just thinks he knows exactly what he’s doing. I never looked to these methods as something to aspire to because even if the food turned out scrumptious, they were straying from all the rules! Who does that?!
Apparently me.
Maybe it’s my weird relationship to authority or my rule-following self, but there’s something so comforting about being told it’s okay to break the rules every now and then — especially when it comes to cooking. Carla’s spins on her own recipes are proof that recipes aren’t absolute.
Making do
This dish in particular is a perfect one to spin. It involves ingredients you likely have stashed away in your pantry during the colder months or ones that sit on your counter during the summer. I’ve made Carla’s CHICKPEAS three different ways.
The tried and true recipe — Overripe tomatoes, the ones you’re hesitant to touch out of fear they’ll explode. Pictured below.
Your canned best friend — A 15 oz. can of whole tomatoes blended to a soup-like consistency
The long-lost tube — We all have a tube of tomato paste living somewhere in our fridge. Find it and squeeze ¼ cup into the pan.
Each method yields a similar result, but they’re each special in their own way. At the end of the summer you want to reap the benefits of bloated tomatoes, and this is the perfect dish for that (coming in second place is this no-heat tomato sauce recipe from that same magazine). A bowl of chickpeas topped with feta and herbs sounds like the perfect dinner on nights when it hits below thirty outside, and that’s when the can or tube comes in hand. Or, try both together for some super spinning!
Finding freedom in the kitchen serves me outside of it too. The older I get, the more interested I am in breaking free of the rules I set for myself when I was younger. Stick to this five-year plan. Eat this so you look like this. Get out of bed at this time if you really want to be productive. It may sound silly, but I know I’m better off without rules sometimes. This past week my therapist even told me so. “You need to take risks if you want to see change, Claudia.”
The reason I’m not a big fan of making resolutions is because I fear I’ll be disappointed in myself for not sticking to them all year long. Instead, I choose words or ideas to shape the habits I want to practice throughout the year. This year’s words are “quality” and “abundance.” To embody these ideas, I’m learning I have to open closed doors — or cans and tubes LOL — in order to let some quality goodness in. It might be scary, but it’s a risk I’m willing to take.
So like Carla recommends, I’m working with what I have this year, even if it means breaking rules and taking risks. By the end of this year I’ll be grateful to have spun myself into the right direction. And of course I’ll take her CHICKPEAS recipe into 2022, and I think you should, too!
Once again you’ve managed to feature something that I would never think of keeping in the house (chickpeas) and make me want to go out and buy. Well done!
I’m a chickpea addict. I get a Gag Xmas gift every year - a case of chickpeas - and I cannot WAIT to try this! Thank you, Claudia!