Accidentally Vegan TV: Nigella's Chickpeas

As I know I have mentioned before, this is my last quarter of grad school. One more month and I am officially finished! That being said, it's crunch-time for me, leaving me less time for cooking or for writing. So I am always pleased to find something blog-worthy that also takes only a little time to write about or to cook. Which brings me to today's post: Accidentally Vegan TV on YouTube and a clip from this past March featuring Nigella. This one caught my eye because I ADORE chickpeas. I am always looking for something new to do with them. Plus, I also love cooking with sherry. And I can't deny there's something very sexy about the way Nigella describes how the cumin seeds "give a certain earthy perfume to the room." I do love her accent.

I encourage you to watch this short clip and try out Nigella's recipe for yourself. I made a few modifications, as I am prone to do with most recipes. I didn't have any cream sherry, so I used dry sherry. I also didn't have garlic oil, so I started with 2 cloves of minced garlic in olive oil. And I also added in about a quarter cup of chopped red onion. I cooked this with the cumin seed before adding the chickpeas, and then I cooked the chickpeas until they were soft, probably a bit longer than she did.

Also, I didn't have any arugula (aka "rocket"), so I used baby kale instead. And once everything was finished cooking, I stirred in 1 teaspoon of salt with 1 tablespoon of lemon juice for a little added flavor. It turned out to be a fantastic dish--and, not only was it easy to make, it was pretty inexpensive and had a lot of flavor. Delicious, fast, and inexpensive! This recipe's a definite keeper. I would also say it's worth it to go out and buy the cumin seeds if you don't have any. I am not always a huge cumin fan, but there's something really great about the seeds that I preferred to the powder or ground cumin--the flavor was somehow fresher, lighter, more complementary than overpowering, as cumin can sometimes be. And Nigella was also right about how it made the room smell earthy and nice.