Chickpeas & Charlie

© 2016 MarcaRelli

Not long after we humans got the boot from the Garden – and all that fresh fruit – we started eating chickpeas. No lie, humans have been eating these little buggers for at least the last eight thousand years and most likely way longer than that.

Chickpeas are also known as Garbanzo Beans or Che-chi (spelled Ceci) but I never heard anyone call them Che-chi and Garbanzo sounds like the monkey from that Ronald Reagan movie, so I’m sticking with Chickpeas.

Here we marry chickpeas up with its eternal soul-mate, tuna, and bless the marriage with a little lemon juice and olive oil. Make this up with some bread tacked on the side and you have a quick and inexpensive lunch. Pita pockets work best to keep those roly-poly chickpeas from escaping.

What You’ll Need

2 – 15 ounce cans of chickpeas
2 – 5 ounce cans of Starkist chunk light tuna (packed in water)
1 lemon
1 red pepper – diced
1 small sweet onion – diced
¼ cup fresh parsley – chopped
¼ cup olive oil
Garlic powder
Salt and Ground Black Pepper

What To Do

Drain and rinse the chickpeas in a colander.

Drain the tuna water into small bowls and do the right thing (see fishyssoise recipe).

Dump the drained chickpeas into a large glass bowl.  Flake in the tuna with a fork. Squeeze the juice from ½ of the lemon over the tuna and chickpeas then add the red pepper, onion and parsley.

Mixy, Mixy, Mixy, Mixy.

Now shake in some garlic powder and salt and pepper to taste.

Drizzle in the olive oil and mix again. 

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for ½ hour.

Mix well one more time before serving and adjust the lemon, garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper to taste.  Serve with a side of potato chips.*

Serves 4.  My Cost Approx $ 5.75  Total – about $ 1.45  per serving.

*
Lefty says… “Dem Utz brand Crab Chips go real good wit this recipe”