Fried Chickpeas with Orange-Mint Yogurt Sauce
Just in case you aren’t sick of chickpeas yet. I’m not, in fact these fried chickpeas are my lunch for the week! The original recipe is below; I didn’t have cumin seed, so I used ground cumin. If you like a lot of flavor, I recommend adding more spice than the recipe calls for. I added a lot more cumin and also some garam masala.
Ingredients:
- 2 cups cooked chickpeas
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- 1/2 onion, sliced
- 1 1/2 tsp whole cumin seed
- 1/8 tsp cayenne powder
- 1/2 tsp coarse sea salt
- 2 tsp lemon juice
- 1 1/2 Tbsp minced garlic
- 1 6-oz. container of plain greek yogurt
- 2 small oranges or clementines
- 10 large leaves fresh mint, finely diced
- 1 Tbsp honey
Directions:
To make the yogurt sauce: Slice one of the oranges in half. Squeeze the juice from the orange halves into the yogurt container, and stir. Add the honey and diced mint and stir until evenly combined. Taste for sweetness and flavoring, and add more of any ingredients you feel necessary. Set aside.
To make the chick peas: Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a large frying pan for about 1 minute, then add the cumin seed and cook for 1-2 minutes, until fragrant and beginning to turn brown. Add the onion, chickpeas, and cayenne powder and cook, stirring every 2-3 minutes, until onions are soft and chickpeas are golden-brown and burnt in places, with a crunchy exterior, about 15 minutes. Add sea salt, lemon juice, and minced garlic, and cook for another minute (the lemon juice and garlic should sizzle quite a bit when added to the pan), then turn off heat and serve, hot, with dressing spooned on the top and orange segments placed on top of dressing. I don’t recommend reheating this, it makes it kind of rubbery; it tastes just fine cold.
Serves 2
