Tuscan Mashed Chickpea

So, if you know me, you know I love Ina Garten.  Her recipes are flawless. As much as I love to tweak a recipe there are rare times I will follow the exact instructions, this is not one of those times.

So, that leads me to the Tuscan Mashed Chickpea dip in her new cookbook FoolProof.  She has AWESOME recipes in this cookbook, but this one caught my eye. 

I also LOVE chickpeas. I eat them in a salad, as hummus and sometimes I just grind them and put on top of crackers or matzo with a little salt and pepper.

My niece Deanna loves to cook and bake with me.  She will call me up and ask to spend the day baking and cooking and testing recipes.  So, when she came over one Sunday in March we decided to make the Tuscan Mashed Chickpeas. 

We made the original batch, and since we both do not like Parsley we substituted Chives. We then, over the course of the next few weeks start testing variations of the recipe till we were completely satisfied.

Well, we achieved success!!! And we ate a LOT of chickpeas in the process.  As you may know when I test a recipe I make it almost twice a week till I get it right.  I made about 15 batches till I got it right and well now I make it and put it on top of my salad or use as a spread instead of mayo or what I did today, use it as a dip for my carrots.

(Adopted from Ina Garten)

2 (15.5 ounce) cans of chickpeas

1/4 + 1 Tablespoon*  cup of chicken stock or broth. (I tried both and both worked well. I did not see a large difference)

*Depending on how you like your dip in terms of consistency you may need to add more. The original recipe called for 1/2 cup we changed it because it was a bit too "mushy" for us. 

2 Tablespoons of Olive Oil

1 ripe tomato (medium size) seeded and small diced

1 yellow pepper seeded and diced small (We added for both color and then we found it added some flavor.)

1 red pepper seeded and diced small (We added for both color and then we found it added some flavor.)

3 garlic cloves (minced)

1/4 grated Parmesan cheese

1 1/2 -2 Tablespoons of lemon juice.

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

chopped chives

• Drain chickpeas in a colander and rinse them thoroughly.
• Pulse the chickpeas in a food processor still they are coursely chopped.
• Add 1 Tablespoon of Chicken Broth / Stock to the chickpeas and pulse once.
• In a saute pan heat the 2 tablespoon of olive oil. 
• Add the chicken broth / stock,  tomatoe and pepper till they are tender.  About 5 minutes
• Add garlic and cook for another 2 minutes.
• Add the chickpeas and saute everything together for about 5 minutes.
• Take off the heat and stir in lemon juice andParmesan cheese.
• Add salt and pepper to taste.
• Sprinkle chopped chives on top and serve.