Author: april@aprilfranz.com

Ok, actually the star of the chickpea show I’ve been running is this pasta dish with a sauce made from chickpeas and herbs. I modified this recipe , skipping garlic, and all fresh veggies, I used canola oil instead of olive to let chickpeas shine through, and used bay leaf (skipping the red pepper flakes bc of reflux) and a dash of vinegar plus salt and pepper. This sauce over gluten-free linguine with some fresh lettuces mixed in (try to get it to wilt a little, tasted so umami and still mild. So cheap too!

I’ve been on a chickpea kick lately and this is my third try with aquafaba–a vegan substitute for egg white. I had to beat this stuff with vinegar salt and sugar (add a little at a time) for over 20 minutes to get it aerated, but it paid off because I was able to mix in yogurt and freeze into a custardy, Pinkberry-type consistency without an ice cream machine. Whisked it twice while in freezer to move the chickpea liquid that settled at the bottom back into the (freezing) mixture. Hope there are no glass splinters in there, and that all the digestive issues aquafaba can cause are kept at bay!

A slight variation on eggs and rice. Sautee some carrots, onions, an celery (diced) in a separate pan while white rice is cooking, The vegetables should be soft and but not mushy. I added some diced ginger here at the end, and if I had garlic I would have added that too. Move veggies out and sautee rice with remaining veggie oil and one egg, moving contents in pan quickly, add salt if you have time (I also added red chili flake). Pour egg rice over veggies and mix until uniform.

I vowed not to be broke again this year, but in case you’re shaping up to be (and just in case for me), I’m brushing up on my “recipes of extreme affordability”. Dried beans like these splits peas bought in one pound bag need to be sorted rinsed and soaked before they’re ready to cook up with the good stuff (in this case diced carrot, celery, onion (together mirepoix), garlic, salt, pepper, and bay leaf). Sautee veg in olive oil then add it and residual oil, plus more to soaked beans with water, and more seasoning. Lightly boil/simmer until soft, between 45 and 75 minutes, adding water to prevent scorching as necessary. I use half the 1-pound bag of beans and it serves two or one hungry.

Well i was in my local grocery store on Sunday and none of the greens looked good in the loose vegetable section. So i decided I’d buy the beets bunch this time and give the beet greens a try. I did this recipe t for the greens while the beets were roasting, and what do you know both turned out great! Roasted beets have fresh garlic, salt, peper, chopped ginger, oil oil, dash vinegar, and fresh cilantro leaves added. Small beets mean eat sooner.

 Kabocha squash–or japanese pumpkin-it’s the best. I roast it using this receipe and then chopped up a little ginger, scraped a little lime zest and added that to a juiced 1/2 lime, and tossed the squash in that mixture. The pumpkin is sweet enough on its own and this is a beautiful and bright side, or just eat a double portion for your dinner :).Bon appetit.