Love garbanzo beans (a.k.a. ceci and chickpeas)? Most of us have only seen these legumes canned or dried.

But you can buy fresh garbanzo beans* from specialty produce purveyors year-round. It’s an altogether different eating experience.

Each nutty green bean is enveloped in a thin, papery skin. To enjoy fresh garbanzos, simply sauté, steam or boil the beans with the skin on.

Then squeeze each bean out of its wrapper, just as with edamame.

As with canned and dried beans, fresh garbanzos can be mashed into dip, tossed into a salad and made into falafel and hummus.

But first eat the fresh garbanzos plain, like edamame, as a snack or in a green salad. You’ll be charmed by the flavor.

Get some fresh garbanzo beans for yourself, send some to your favorite garbanzo bean lover. The clam shell pack can be stored for 7-10 days in the produce crisper.

The real (fresh) deal: fresh garbanzo
beans (chickpeas) (photo © Melissas).

Garbanzos are high in calories, but they are all good calories. The beans are an excellent source of protein and cholesterol-lowering fiber. Their high level of insoluble fiber helps to prevent digestive disorders such as diverticulosis and IBS. Garbanzo bean group participants had better blood fat regulation—including lower levels of LDL-cholesterol, total cholesterol, and triglycerides—than the group that consumed dietary fiber from another source.

Garbanzos are an excellent source of folate (vitamin B9) and contain the antioxidant vitamins A & C along along with other good-for-you phytonutrients. Low in fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, and sodium, garbanzos are a heart-healthy food.

Whole Foods Market reports a recent study where participants reported more satisfaction with their diet when garbanzo beans were included. They consumed fewer processed food snacks and less food overall.
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*There are two main varieties of garbanzos. Desi are small, angular and variegated in color and were probably the original chickpea cultivated. Today, the predominant variety is the kabuli, a large beaked pea.
 

Fresh chickpeas (photo ©Khalid Mahmood | Wikipedia).

HOW THE CHICKPEA GOT ITS NAME

Call it Bengal gram, ceci bean, chana, garbanzo bean or sanagalu: The chickpea is one of the earliest cultivated legumes. Remains have been found in the Middle East that date back 7,500 years.

“Chickpea” evolved from the Latin cicer, which happens to be the same root as the Roman name Cicero. The Oxford English Dictionary lists a 1548 citation that reads, “Cicer may be named in English Cich, or ciche pease, after the Frenche tonge.” By the mid-18th century, ciche peas became chick-peas.

The word “garbanzo” is a bit more obscure. It is first noted in English in the 17th century, as “calavance,” perhaps from the Old Spanish algarroba. There is also a possible Basque word parent, garbantzu, a compound of garau, seed and antzu, dry.

In ancient Greece, chickpeas (called erébinthos) were consumed raw when young and eaten as a staple food, as well as a dessert. (Today, halua, chickpeas in a sugar base that has some resemblance to peanut brittle, is a popular sweet dish in Bangladesh.)

We recommend the more conventional uses.

Check out the different types of beans and legumes in our Bean Glossary.

While summer corn has faded from markets, you can get plenty of Inka Corn: a roasted Peruvian corn snack.

According to the manufacturer, this is the same “imperial snack” that Inka rulers used to reward their warrior heroes.

If you’ve had CornNuts, the Inka Corn kernels are much larger and less hard on the teeth. And much better tasting.

The Inka Corn kernels are also much larger than Half Pops—a NIBBLE Top Pick Of The Week that is air-popped rather than roasted in oil.

When we first saw Inka Corn at a trade show, an ear of the giant white corn variety (called choclo, Cuzco corn or Peruvian corn) from which it is made was displayed. Peruvian corn looks like a musclebound body builder compared with the relatively slender, small-kerneled ears of the sweet corn grown for America’s tables.

Made in Peru, Inka Corn kernels are roasted in oil for a delicious light crunch. It is made simply from corn kernels, palm olein* and salt. The ingredients are all natural; there are no trans fats or hydrogenated oils or GMOs.

Inka Corn is available in Original, Salt & Vinegar and Chile Picante.

NUTRITION BONUS

Corn is a whole grain food. Inka Corn is also dairy free, gluten free, wheat free and vegan.

Crunch away!

*Palm olein is the liquid component of palm kernel oil obtained from fractionation, a process used with coconut oil, palm oil and palm kernel oil to produce oils of different viscosities for different purposes.

Earlier this year, we wrote about the new healthy chip craze, nutritious kale chips.

Will the next hot snack be parsnip chips? These root vegetables, cousins of carrots, are popular in soups and stews.

But they also lend their honeyed sweetness to a crunchy snack chip.

Full of fiber, folate, manganese, potassium and vitamins C and K, parsnips are healthy, filling and surprising “gourmet.”

If you have an ActiFry, you need very little oil to make the chips.

Alternatively, you can bake the chips in the oven,* use a Mastrad chip maker in the microwave, or fry them in the conventional (but less healthy) manner.

Parsnip chips can also be served as a side vegetable, with or without the dip. We sprinkled ours with a touch of sea salt and chopped fresh parsley or rosemary.

RECIPE #1: PARSNIP CHIPS AND MAPLE MUSTARD DIP

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. SLICE the parsnips very thinly, preferably with a mandoline slicer. The thinner the slices, the crisper the chips.

2. TOSS the parsnip slices with the rice flour in a bowl.

3. ADD the olive oil and parsnips to the ActiFry and cook for about 35 minutes, or until brown and mostly crisp.
 
RECIPE #2: MAPLE DIP

The creamy maple mustard dip is lighter and has less saturated fat than rich sour cream based dips.

The sweetness of the maple syrup complements the sweetness of the parsnips, but if you can use your favorite tangy dip or salsa.
 
Ingredients

Preparation

1. WHISK together the mustard, maple syrup, olive oil and mayonnaise, until creamy and well combined. Serve the dip with the parsnip chips.
 
 
THE HISTORY OF PARSNIPS

Parsnips originated in the Mediterranean basin. Wild parsnips were the size of baby carrots.

The Romans brought the parsnips north through Europe, finding that the farther north they were planted, the bigger the vegetable grew.

Parsnips (Pastinaca sativa) are members of the taproot (true root) family, Apiaceae. This is a group of plants whose roots are eaten as vegetables: beet, black salsify, burdock, carrot, celeriac, daikon and radish, rutabaga and turnip, among others.

Find more of our favorite savory snacks and vegetables.

Freshly harvested parsnips. Photo © Uros Petrovic | Fotolia.

Tea sandwiches are adorable. Who can resist miniature food?

Those who have made them know how easy they are. They can be as simple as curried tuna salad or sliced cucumbers and herbs with sweet butter. Expensive ingredients are not required.

Nor is special bread. We typically buy loaves of Pepperidge Farm Very Thin white bread and whole wheat bread. You can use whatever bread you like, but the key is to keep it light; the bread shouldn’t overwhelm the fillings.

Most importantly, you don’t need to serve tea sandwiches with tea. For snacks, as cocktail food or for a light dinner with soup or salad, the whole of tea sandwiches is greater than the sum of the parts.

(Otherwise stated, they have much more appeal than a conventional sandwiches.)

Classic tea sandwich shapes include fingers (slender rectangles), squares, triangles and pinwheels (cut from wraps). While traditionally made with two slices of bread, they can be open-face.
 

But you can be even more fanciful and get out the cookie cutters: animals, diamonds, hearts, stars, whatever you have. For a trompe l’oeil, use gingerbread men. For holidays, dig out the turkey, the Christmas tree, the candy cane.

(For the days after Thanksgiving, stave off turkey sandwich boredom with turkey and cranberry tea sandwiches—whether or not you have a turkey cookie cutter.)

Plan on four to six finger sandwiches per person for snacks or when serving a light lunch or dinner alongside a large bowl of soup or salad. Plan for two or three with cocktails.

HOW TO CREATE TEA SANDWICHES

You can start with a book such as “Tastefully Small Finger Sandwiches: Easy Party Sandwiches for All Occasions” (more information).

Or, grab that thin-sliced bread and mix and match from the ingredients that follow. Tea sandwiches should be light and delicate. The idea is “just a bite.”

Pick A Filling

Have some fun with it: Use fanciful cookie cutters to make tea sandwiches. Photo by Kenneth Clawson | Wikimedia.

 
For snacks, you can also make sweet tea sandwiches: PB&J, mascarpone and strawberries, Nutella.

Pick A Spread

In England the bread is traditionally buttered, but we enjoy different spreads that complement the ingredients.

 
Pick A Garnish Or Accent

 
TIPS

Share your favorite tea sandwich combinations.

And check out the history of afternoon tea.

Calling all cake lovers: October 10th is National Angel Food Cake.

An angel food cake is a light, flourless affair made with sugar, a dozen or so egg whites, cream of tartar (which increases the heat tolerance and volume of the egg whites) plus vanilla or almond extract and salt.

It is also a gluten-free cake.

Angel food cake is generally made in a tube pan and served with berries and whipped cream. But Martha Stewart makes a much more elaborate creation, perhaps the best angel food cake recipe concept.

Watch her prepare it in this video: a two-layer angel food cake filled and iced with whipped cream and berries.

For a variation, you can substitute banana slices or pineapple for the berries. For a lemony angel food cake, substitute lemon extract for the vanilla/almond extract and add lemon zest to the whipped cream.

Find more of our favorite cakes and recipes.

See all the different cake types in our Cake Glossary.

Try this recipe for grilled angel food cake.