Chickpea and Green Bean Salad

The one thing with getting farm-fresh, organic produce is that it doesn't last very long, so I had to figure out what to do with a pound of green beans and fast.

After perusing the internet and several cookbooks, I settled on this chickpea and green bean salad from one of Madhur Jaffrey's cookbooks (who incidentally is married to violinist Sanford Allen, the first African-American musician appointed to the New York Philharmonic Orchestra). I already had most of the ingredients, and I'd been dying to use the garam masala I bought at Whole Foods last week. So after a quick trip to Publix for some ginger root and canned chickpeas, I was ready to go.

While this recipe is basically two simple steps: 1. make the chickpea salad and 2. blanch and make the green bean salad, the chickpea salad ideally needs to marinate for a couple of hours (Ms. Jaffrey suggests even up to five hours).

I started by heating up a 15.5 oz. can of chickpeas, in its liquid. It turned out to be about half a cup fewer chickpeas than Ms. Jaffrey's recipe calls for, but since I'm using more green beans than her recipe calls for, I did not adjust the spices down.

While the chickpeas are heating up, make a dressing using a half a cup of vegetable oil, a quarter cup of wine vinegar (I used red wine vinegar), a quarter teaspoon of salt, 1 teaspoon of garam masala, and two cloves of garlic that have been crushed to a pulp (I used a meat tenderizer) and some red pepper flakes to taste. After the chickpeas are hot, drain them and combine them with the dressing. Do this while the chickpeas are still hot. Don't let them cool. Cover and set aside in the fridge to marinate for a couple of hours.

Next, blanch the green beans. Put enough water in a pot to cover all the green beans, but just enough. When the water comes to a full boil, drop in your beans, salt to taste and keep boiling on high for about 3-4 minutes. Watch the time because you want your beans to come out lightly crunchy, not soggy. Drain the green beans and let them dry while you make their dressing.

In another bowl, combine a quarter cup of vegetable oil, juice from half a lemon (the recipe calls for two tablespoons, but I just "winged it"), half a teaspoon salt, half a teaspoon garam masala, a quarter of a finely minced onion (again, officially two tablespoons) and one teaspoon freshly grated ginger root.

After the beans are dry, add them to the dressing, combine the two salads, and you've got a satisfyingly spicy, completely guilt-free dish!