Chickpea Romesco with Saffron-Garlic Rice

This recipe is from Veganomicon by Isa & Terry. I love making nut based dishes, be it nut butters or just ground nuts-I think they make the dish creamy and extremely tasty. Romesco sauce is a Spanish style red sauce that is made with almonds, red pepper, vinegar, roasted tomatoes & garlic. It is typically served with seafood, but in this dish chickpeas are simmered in romesco sauce to make a delicious vegetarian/ vegan entrée.

Recipe adapted from Veganomicon.
Ingredients:
Slivered almonds – 1/3 cup
Roasted red peppers (home-made or store-bought) – 2
Fire-roasted tomatoes (or regular diced) – 1 28 oz. can
Garlic cloves – 3, minced
Red onion (or Shallots) – 2 small, finely chopped
Red Serrano chili – 1
Vegetable broth (or White wine) – ¼ cup
Red wine vinegar – 2tsp
Sugar – 2tsp
Dried thyme – 1tsp
Dried Rosemary – ½ tsp, crumbled

Chickpeas – 2 16 oz. cans, rinsed and drained (I used 1 can each of Chickpeas & Cannellini beans)

Salt & Pepper – to taste

Method:

• Grind the almonds into almost smooth, powdery crumbs.
• Blend roasted peppers and tomatoes until smooth and set aside.
• Heat 2tbsp olive oil in a medium-sized sauce pan; sauté garlic, chilies & onions until onions turn golden, about 5 minutes.
• Pour in the tomato & pepper puree, broth (or wine), vinegar, sugar and herbs. Bring the mixture to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
• Next add the chickpeas, season with salt and pepper and simmer the mixture on medium-low flame for about 20-25 minutes or until the mixture becomes thick and coats the beans. Serve with Saffron-Garlic Rice.

Here’s how I made the Saffron-garlic rice:

Since I was making this dish on a weeknight and it was only for the 3 of us, I used only a little bit of saffron (I use saffron extremely sparingly and guard it with my life, do you remember seeing saffron garnished on any of my dishes—nope, too expensive to use as garnish :0).

Ingredients:

Long grain rice – 2 cups (I used Sonamasoori rice, but Basmati would be excellent here)

Garlic – 3 cloves, minced

Saffron – pinch (or more)

Salt & pepper – to taste

Method:

• Rinse and soak rice in cold water for at least 10 minutes.
• Add 2tbsp hot water to saffron in a small bowl.
• Heat 1tsp oil and garlic in a pressure cooker. Once the garlic starts to sizzle and brown, add drained rice and mix to coat the grains with the oil. Sauté for couple of minutes until rice starts to turn opaque.
• Add saffron water, 4 cups of water, salt and pepper, mix well and cook for 2 whistles on high flame.

Serve hot with the Chickpeas. Yummmm..

This goes to Aipi’s Bookmarked recipe every Tuesday event.