Once you’ve tried this Warm Butternut Chickpea Salad, you will want to enjoy it over and over. This scrumptious, nourishing salad will become your easy dinner staple. If you’ve never tried butternut squash with garbanzo beans before, the perfection of their marriage will impress you. Butternut adds a beautiful hint of sweetness to chickpeas. In their turn, chickpeas add more substance and a pleasant crunch. Both of these healthy vegetables love curry, and everyone knows that cinnamon makes the best of any winter squash. The most splendid aspect of this dish is that it contains just three ingredients (butternut squash, chickpeas and olive oil) and two common spices (curry powder and cinnamon). Feel free to add greens, like cilantro or parsley, to make this dish even more nutritious.
As you will note below, the recipe asks you to dice butternut squash quite finely, in half inch cubes. To accomplish that, we used Breville Sous Chef Peel & Dice Countertop Food Processor. I strongly recommend this food processor for anyone who prepares meals at home, and enjoys cooking and eating vegetables!
Note also that we start with dry chickpeas, and for this reason the cooking time looks longer than it would have been otherwise. If you use canned chickpeas, your total cooking time will be just 50 minutes, including passive cooking time.
Nonetheless, I prefer the richer taste of freshly cooked chickpeas. Unlike the dry variety, canned chickpeas contain sodium. See a FoodNetwork article discussing health benefits of chickpeas. They also have fewer nutrients and an inferior taste. See a Livestrong article discussing disadvantages of canned chickpeas.
Lastly, the inspiration to marry butternut squash and chickpeas came from Food & Wine’s recipe by Melissa Rubel. The proportions and spices are all mine.
Vegan • Low glycemic • Flavorful • Easy • Nutrient-dense • Sugar-free • Delicious
This Warm Butternut Chickpea Salad makes a lovely meal or a satisfying side. Chickpeas and butternut squash combine perfectly together to create a nourishing, comforting salad. Because of its plentiful quantity, it is also perfect for your holiday table. You will see that this dish calls for plenty of mild curry powder and quality cinnamon. If you are working with a smaller squash (about 3 lbs), you can reduce the amount of curry powder for the squash to 1.5 tablespoons and cinnamon to 1.5 teaspoons. I would not recommend tinkering with the curry power for the chickpeas, however, because they benefit from a greater flavor. As you will also see, the Warm Butternut Chickpea Salads wants you to pour plenty of olive oil. While I've tried using less, butternut squash and chickpeas are quite dry and bland without it. Put simply, these two vegetables soak up the healthy olive oil. Note also that the recipe asks you to dice butternut squash quite finely, in half-inch cubes. To accomplish that, we used Breville Sous Chef Peel & Dice Countertop Food Processor.
If you are working with pre-cooked chickpeas, the entire dish will take about 50 minutes. That includes passive cooking time. I strongly recommend, however, that you use dry chickpeas. And if do, I would add onion, 3 garlic cloves and 1 bay leaf to the dry chickpeas. When the chickpeas are ready, you can discard these additions.
Once again, I found the idea for the combination of chickpeas and butternut squash in Food & Wine's recipe by Melissa Rubel. My recipe, however, uses completely different proportions of the ingredients and adds cinnamon.
Drain and rinse the presoaked chickpeas. Then place chickpeas in a medium saucepan, cover with water and boil until soft, for about 2.5 hours. Preferably, change the water twice while boiling. When ready, drain and dry the chickpeas.
Preheat oven to 400 F. Toss butternut squash cubes with 1/3 cup organic olive oil, 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon and 2 tablespoons organic mild curry powder. Nestle the cubes on a large baking sheet. Roast for about 30 to 35 minutes, or until soft, turning half-way.
Next, stir together chickpeas, 2 tablespoons organic olive oil and 2 teaspoons organic mild curry powder. Transfer to a medium baking sheet and roast for about 15 min at 400 F, or until the chickpeas turn dark golden.
At last, stir together butternut squash and chickpeas and add salt and pepper. When the vegetables are no longer hot, share and enjoy your warm butternut chickpea salad.
Ingredients
Directions
Drain and rinse the presoaked chickpeas. Then place chickpeas in a medium saucepan, cover with water and boil until soft, for about 2.5 hours. Preferably, change the water twice while boiling. When ready, drain and dry the chickpeas.
Preheat oven to 400 F. Toss butternut squash cubes with 1/3 cup organic olive oil, 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon and 2 tablespoons organic mild curry powder. Nestle the cubes on a large baking sheet. Roast for about 30 to 35 minutes, or until soft, turning half-way.
Next, stir together chickpeas, 2 tablespoons organic olive oil and 2 teaspoons organic mild curry powder. Transfer to a medium baking sheet and roast for about 15 min at 400 F, or until the chickpeas turn dark golden.
At last, stir together butternut squash and chickpeas and add salt and pepper. When the vegetables are no longer hot, share and enjoy your warm butternut chickpea salad.