I came up with this because I was going to make falafels…but then I got thinking that I didn’t want to eat a lot of fried food so I thought I’d make a healthier side dish out of chickpeas that taste similar to falafels. If you like the taste of falafels you should enjoy this. I note that you have to get the chickpeas started in water the night before.

Ingredients for around 12 servings

1 lb dried chickpeas – inspected and rinsed – must soak over night in a little more than twice the amount of water (you can do the one hour method but I don’t like it as much)

5 1/2 cups water to cook drained and rinsed – already soaked chickpeas (after cooking save one cup for making the tahini sauce)

1 lb carrots – peeled – chopped into pieces around the size of chickpeas

1/4 cup water

1/4 teaspoon vegetable base

sweet onion – chopped around chick pea size (around 13 oz)

3 medium sized bell peppers (preferably mixed colors) – chopped around chickpea size

3 garlic cloves – ground to paste or microplane

1 Tablespoon Aleppo pepper

1 Tablespoon course sea salt

2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1 teaspoon turmeric

1 cup fresh parsley leaves – chopped

1/4 cup fresh cilantro (leaves and some tender stems) – chopped

4 Tablespoons (some were heaping) tahini (this is for tahini sauce)

1 garlic clove – ground to paste or microplane (this is for tahini sauce)

1 nice lemon – just the fresh squeezed juice (this is for tahini sauce)

1 teaspoon sea salt (this is for tahini sauce)

1 teaspoon cumin (this is for tahini sauce)

1 cup chickpea water (leftover from cooking the chick peas) (this is for tahini sauce)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F

Your chickpeas should have been inspected, rinsed and soaked over-night first. Now drain and rinse the chickpeas again. Bring about twice the amount of water to what you have of chickpeas to a boil (around 51/2 cups water). Once the chickpeas are boiling then reduce them to simmering. Let them simmer at least an hour and then check to see if they are done. Mine took exactly one hour. Once done drain the chickpeas and save one cup of cooked bean water and set the chickpeas and chickpea water to the side.

While the chickpeas are cooking get the carrots in a pan. In a small mixing bowl mix the 1/4 cup of water with the vegetable base and pour it on to the carrots. Cover the pan with foil and set in the preheated oven till the carrots are fork tender. (in my oven this took around 40 minutes….yours may differ)

Also while the chickpeas are cooking……. on one small sheet pan add the onions and on the other add the peppers and broil on high till vegetables look charred. Remove onions and peppers when charred.

By now or soon the chickpeas will be done. Add the peppers, carrots and onions to the chickpeas. Now add three cloves garlic, Aleppo pepper, 1 Tablespoon salt, 2 teaspoons cumin, coriander, turmeric, parsley and cilantro and gently mix.

In small bowl add the tahini, garlic, lemon juice, salt, cumin and chickpea water and mix well. You can keep this on the side and add as you please or just mix it into the chickpea mixture.

Enjoy!