(Featured on Rogers Daytime, March 4th, 2014)

If you love chickpeas, these 2 recipes will be a great way to enjoy them while saving time.

Staples in my kitchen always include chickpeas, feta cheese, rice, pasta and some chicken or vegetable bouillon.  If you have some leftover veggies in your bottom fridge drawer, by all means don’t exclude them, they can be a great addition to many simple rice or chickpea dishes.  Pine nuts or pecans (roasted in oven), are also readily available in my pantry as we add them to some pasta/rice dishes as well as our amazing salads.

I know Quinoa is the new rice, however, white rice is a great base (affordable) which allows you to add any type of protein, vegetables and meat (if you really like your meat), hence we focused on regular white rice for this recipe.

The idea is versatility, easy to experiment and you get more than one dish out of your cooking time which for many busy folks is important.

STEP ONE:
Cook up enough rice for your hot rice dish and your cold rice/chick pea salad.

I used long grain Uncle Bens and these are the measurements for approximately 7 cups of rice.  Use 4 for the Greek rice and the left overs for your salad.

RICE BASE:

• 4 cups of chicken broth
• 2 cups of rice
• 1 1/2 tspn of salt
• 3 -4 tspn of butter
• Boil broth, add butter and rice, turn heat down and simmer about 20 minutes, remove from burner, let rest for 10 minutes and fluff up. Note: if you have a rice cooker, use it.  Perfect rice can be tricky for some folks. I’ve had my blunders.  Let rice cool before working with it to avoid a mushy rice.

GREEK RICE WITH PINE NUTS

• 4 cups of cooked rice
• 1/2 can chick peas
• 1 small onion (minced)
• 1/4 cup butter (or 2 tbspn butter  & 2 tbspn olive oil)
• 1/2 to 3/4 tspn of dried mint
• 1 to  1 1/4 tspn of dried dill
• salt & pepper to taste
• juice of one lemon
• 1/4 cup pine nuts (optional but in my opinion it does complete the dish)

Melt butter/oil in pan, saute until onions are translucent.  Add cooked rice, dill, mint, salt, pepper, chick peas, (chopped cooked chicken if adding meat), juice of one lemon and pine nuts.  Heat thoroughly.  Serves 6

Notes: (fresh mint  is also great when in season. I have wild mint growing along fence in the grass which no one can see so I don’t cut it. I just love it.  You will however need more fresh herb than dry.  (click here ) for herb measuring information)

Optional: Diced (roasted chicken from grocery store)

CHICK PEA & RICE SALAD WITH TOMATOES

• Approximately 3 1/2 cups of cooked rice
• 1/2 can chick peas
• 1/4 – 1/2 cups feta cheese
• 1/2 small onion, finely diced
• salt & pepper
• 1/2 cup red peppers, finely diced
• Campari tomatoes (quartered) 8
• OR red grape tomatoes

Dressing: (makes enough for 2 salads)

• 1/4 tspn Oregano (dry)
• 4 tbspn Olive Oil (extra virgin))
• 2 tbspn red wine vinegar
• 1/2 tspn salt
• 1 tbspn lemon juice

Note: you could add extra chick peas if you wish. Simply adjust your other ingredients or salad dressing if needed.

Other toppings/ingredients: 

• chopped up cooked asparagus (click here) for easy way to cook asparagus and tasty too.
• baby corn
• cucumbers (I prefer without)