Here’s a quick-and-easy chickpea salad for National Chickpea Day, April 21st (photo #1). You may know today’s legume honoree by one of its other names: ceci or cece (Italian), chana or Kabuli chana (Northern India), Egyptian pea, garbanzo (Spanish), gram or Bengal gram (British India).

By any name, chickpeas are protein-packed with protein and a rich source of vitamins, minerals, and fiber. Here are 10 science-backed health benefits of chickpeas.

Spell them chickpeas or chick peas, serve them as a side, enjoy them as a snack, and add them to soup.

Chickpeas can be mashed into dip (like hummus), tossed into a salad, made into falafel, and served with everything from breakfast eggs to dinner pasta.

Today’s recipe serves chickpeas Italian-style, with tomato sauce and salame (the correct spelling for what Americans chose to write as “salami”).

Thanks to Veroni for the recipe, which uses the company’s Salame Milano in the salad. The style of salame is an ancient one, characterized by an intense red color and a flavor that’s delicate and sweet, rather than spicy.

Here are Veroni’s other salame styles.

If you don’t eat pork, substitute meat of choice, including vegan, wheat-based seitan. Shrimp works nicely.

The recipe begins below, after we answer the question: Why is it called a salad if there are no raw vegetables?

> There are more delicious chickpea recipes below.

> The history of chickpeas.

> Is the chickpea a pea or a bean?

> The different types of beans and legumes.
 
 
WHY IS IT CALLED “SALAD” IF THERE ARE NO GREENS?

Think chicken salad, egg salad, potato salad, pasta salad, Waldorf salad, and so on: No greens here! What “binds” them together is a dressing, with salt.

“Salad” derives from the Latin word for salt, sal. “Salad” has nothing to do with vegetables and everything to do with the salt that enhances the flavor of the dish.

A salad can refer to any number of ingredients—fruits, vegetables, grains, proteins, and other ingredients that can be mixed or topped with dressings that contain salt. (Yes, even a sweet dressing contains a pinch or more of salt.)

Where did the greens come into the picture?

What we now think of as the classic dinner salad of greens and other raw vegetables has its roots in the first century C.E., in Greek and Roman cuisine.

The ancient Greek physician Hippocrates (460 B.C.E. to 370 B.C.E.) believed that vegetables were easily digested (not true—they can be hard to digest). He taught his patients to eat a salad before the main course.

The salads were made with seasonal, chopped raw vegetables, dressed with oil, vinegar, and salt. They were nearly identical to the raw vegetable salads served today [source].

Here’s more of the history of salad.
 
 
RECIPE: CHICKPEA SALAD WITH SALAME & GREEK YOGURT

This chickpea salad is served with sliced bread (toasted country bread is best!), but it’s not a spread per se: It’s spoonable, not spreadable!

It’s also served with a side of Greek yogurt, in the manner of the sour cream garnish for chili.
 
Ingredients For 4 Servings

 
Preparation

1. HEAT the oil in a saucepan, and add the chopped onion and the salami.

2. SAUTÉ, stirring often. When the onion becomes transparent, add the chickpeas and onion mix, and simmer for another 5 minutes.

3. ADD the tomato purée, salt, pepper, and oregano. Continue cooking, covered, for another 15 minutes or until the sauce has reduced.

4. SERVE with Greek yogurt and sliced bread as desired.
 
 
MORE CHICKPEA RECIPES

In addition to falafel and hummus—two chickpea-based Middle Eastern staples that have been embraced by Americans, try:

 
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*Veroni Salame Milano is made from lean portions of Italian pork, which is finely minced and flavored with a blend of sea salt, black pepper, spices, and natural flavors. After seasoning, the sausage mass is placed into a special cotton bag and matured in a natural micro-climate.

Quality meat is used: the shoulder, the loin, and the trimmings of all of the most prized cuts. The quality of the fat is of equal importance.

The fat used is obtained from the guanciale, the jowls, which is the most valuable fat from the pig. It is combined with subcutaneous fat to give the product the right softness [source].

[1] Chickpea salad with salame. The recipe is below (photo © Veroni).

[2] Dried chickpeas (photo © Polina Tankilevitch | Pexels).

[3] Freshly-harvested chickpeas, before they’re dried. You can use them raw or cooked in a variety of dishes (photo © Hannah Kaminsky | Bittersweet Blog).

[4] Toss steamed (canned) or roasted chickpeas into any green salad; here, it’s kale (photo © Saffron Road).

[5] Or, toss them into any protein salad: chicken, egg, shrimp, tuna, etc. Here’s the recipe for this tuna-and-chickpea salad (photo © DeLallo).

[6] Pasta e Ceci is a famous Italian chickpea soup. Here’s the recipe Here’s the recipe (photo © DeLallo).

[7] Hummus, the most common use of chickpeas in the U.S. (photo © Monika Grabkowska | Unsplash).

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[1] Stellar Braids, vegan butter braids in four flavors (photos #1 and #2 © Stellar Snacks).

[2] Crunchy pretzel braids with a side of crudités.

[3] Monk fruit melons growing on a vine (photo © Clean Plates).

[4] Vegan butter from Miyoko’s. Miyoko’s vegan cheese and butter were a Nibble Top Pick Of The Week (photo © Miyoko’s Creamery).

We have a new pretzel passion: Stellar Braids from Stellar Snacks. Unveiled to the trade earlier this year, Stellar Braids are a line of flavor-forward, vegan*, non-GMO, no MSG, kosher (certified by OU) pretzels.

Founded by a mother-daughter team in Carson City, Nevada, the pretzels have made their way to stores nationwide—and online, of course.

We like pretzels, and the flavored versions of Stellar Braids have a little something extra: monk fruit.

Monk fruit, called luo han guo in its native China, is a herbaceous perennial vine bearing small, round, melons.

Monk fruit has long been used in China as a zero-calorie sweetener, as well as in traditional Chinese medicine.

In Stellar’s pretzel dough, it adds a bit of sweetness as a counterpoint to savory flavors:

 
Note that there’s a small bit of raw cane sugar in the first three flavors, which contributes 1g of added sugar per serving. There is no zero added sugar in Simply Stellar.

Next, you might ask, what’s vegan butter?

Vegan butter is a plant-based, nondairy butter that’s typically made by blending water with one or more plant oil, such as avocado, coconut, olive, or palm kernel oil.

These products often contain additional ingredients to emulate the flavor, and texture of real butter, such as colorings, emulsifiers, salt, and other natural or artificial flavors. Here are 10 well-regarded vegan butter brands.

For Stellar Braids, the vegan butter adds a subtle but delicious butter flavor.

Baked from scratch daily in Carson City, Nevada, special attention is paid to the quality of the ingredients. No less than imported sea salt from Italy is used, and the company is dedicated to sustainable manufacturing practices.

And one more nice thing: The package designs showcase budding artists, making them a canvas for something truly Stellar.

Emerging illustrators and designers are given a platform to showcase their talents and you get a work of art on every bag.
 
 
GET YOUR STELLAR BUTTER BRAIDS

Look for them at specialty food stores, including Central Market, Holiday Market, Mariano’s, Ralph’s, Surfas, and World Market.

And of course, they’re online at StellarSnacks.com.

We were pleased to find our favorite flavor, Bold & Herby, on Instacart.
 
 
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*Pretzels typically are vegan products. The ingredients are flour, water, yeast, vegetable shortening, and sugar. Here’s how each ingredient contributes to the pretzel.

[1] Garlic chips, showing the progression in color as roasting progresses (photo © Colavita Recipes).

[2] A bowl of garlic bulbs, ready to be turned into garlic chips (photo © Daria Shevtsova | Pexels).

April 19th is National Garlic Day. How to celebrate the day? With this garlic chips recipe!

A low-calorie* way to flavor foods from breakfast through dinner, this homemade garlic chips recipe is a tasty find—nothing like the desiccated garlic chips sold by spice manufacturers.

The recipe makes thin, crispy garlic chips as a garnish for:

 
You can even enjoy it mixed into oatmeal or other porridge—a savory approach instead of sweet garnishes.

You can also add grated cheese and fresh-cracked pepper to your savory porridge.

Thanks to Colavita for the recipe.

> The history of garlic is below.

> How about a garlic bread recipe?
 
 
RECIPE: GARLIC CHIPS

Make as many garlic chips as you like—or as many as will fit on your baking sheet.
 
Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. PREHEAT the oven to 350°F.

2. PLACE the garlic slices on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Brush the slices with olive oil and place in the oven.

3. ALLOW the pieces to brown and “chip” in the oven for about 10 minutes. Some slices may chip more slowly or quickly, so keep an eye on them and remove them when they are golden brown (photo #1).

4. STORE them in an airtight container for up to two weeks.
 

Wild garlic originated somewhere in Central Asia†. Throughout history, humans migrating and traveling through Central Asia and surrounding areas have collected wild garlic and carried it with them for later consumption and cultivation.

Garlic is one of the oldest known horticultural crops, with mentions in Egyptian and Indian cultures some 5000 years ago. The Babylonians wrote of it 4500 years ago, and the Chinese at least 2000 years ago, although some writings suggest that garlic was grown in China as far back as 4000 years ago.

Garlic began to be cultivated in Europe around 1000 years ago, and today garlic is cultivated worldwide [source].

The pungent vegetable‡ can add flavor to any savory food. The English word garlic derives from Old English, garlēac, which combines gar (spear) and lēac (leek), meaning a “spear-shaped leek.”
 
 
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*There are four calories in one clove of garlic.
 
†Today wild garlic grows only in Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan) today), although earlier in history it grew wild over a much larger region—perhaps from China to India to from Egypt to the Ukraine.

‡While it may be used as such, garlic is neither herb or spice, but a vegetable. It is a member of the Allium genus, which also includes chive, leek, onion, scallion, and shallot. The generic name Allium is the Latin word for garlic, and garlic’s botanical name, Allium sativum, means “cultivated garlic.”

What to drink on April 20th, National Banana Day? How about this banana iced coffee recipe? Plus a bonus: the history of cardamom, a spice that gives this drink a special flavor.

Thanks to Dole for the recipe. There are many more banana recipes in every category on Dole.com.

On April 20th, national Banana Day, we’ll present 50 banana recipes.

 
 
RECIPE: BANANA ICED COFFEE

This recipe is made with almond milk, which gives it a subtle layer of flavor. But you can use your milk of choice.
 
Ingredients For 2½ Cups – 4 Servings

 
Preparation

1. PUREE the bananas, sugar, cardamom, and vanilla extract in a blender. With the blender running, slowly add the milk.

2. FREEZE the banana mixture for 1 hour or until almost solid.

3. DIVIDE the coffee into four 12-ounce glasses. Stir in the banana mixture and sprinkle with chocolate. Serv

4. SERVE with additional milk, if desired.
 
 
THE HISTORY OF CARDAMOM

Wild cardamom plants originated in the rainforests of the Western Ghats, a mountain range in Southern India. The plants were so abundant that the area became known as Cardamom Hills.

Elettaria cardamomum, commonly known as green or true cardamom, is an herbaceous, perennial plant in the ginger family of flowering plants, Zingiberaceae. Cardamom pods (photo #2) are the fruit of the large ginger-like plant. Each pod contains 15 to 20 tiny, sticky black or brown seeds with a strong fruity aroma (photo #3).

The pods and seeds have a strong aroma, in the manner of cloves. The flavor is also strong, and has been described as a combination of ginger and cinnamon. The versatile spice has long been used in both savory and sweet foods.

The use of cardamom dates back at least 4000 years and traveled far beyond India. Ancient Egyptians chewed cardamom pods to keep their breath minty fresh and to help clean their teeth. They also used it for medicinal purposes, rituals, and embalming.

The Greeks and Romans liked cardamom for its pungent aroma. It was a key ingredient in perfumes and aromatic oils.

Vikings discovered cardamom and brought it back to Scandinavia, where it became popular in baking breads and pastries, cooking, mulled wine, and glögg.

During the 19th century, plantations of cardamom were set up by British colonists in India and Sri Lanka [source].

Green cardamom is one of the 10 most expensive spices in the world by weight (here’s the whole list). However, with its strong flavor, a little goes a long way.

Green Cardamom Vs. Black Cardamom

Note that there is also black cardamom (photo #5), a different species, with a flavor that is not interchangeable with green cardamom (i.e., do not substitute!).

[1] Banana iced coffee has accents of almond, cardamom and vanilla (photo © Dole).

[2] Cardamom pods contain a number of seeds (photo #3), but the entire cardamom pod can be used whole or ground (photos #2, #3, #4, #5 © Silk Road Spices).

[3] The cardamom seeds inside the pods (photo #3) are ground (photo #4).

[4] Ground green cardamom.

[5] Black cardamom, a different species with a very different flavor profile.

[6] Vanilla cardamom whoopie pie and milkshake shooter. Here are the recipes for the milkshake and whoopie pies (photo © McCormick).

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