My first exposure to “garbanzo beans” was when Dad cracked open a can to add to his famous never-the-same-twice vegetable soup. He will make a giant batch of tomato-based vegetable soup that only he will eat, then “doctor” each individual bowl with whatever sauces he can find in the door of the fridge. Hot sauce, barbecue sauce, mustard, Worcestershire, Heinz 57, Liquid Smoke–he’s like a mad scientist concocting either a cure for cancer or a nerve agent, and the difference between the two might just be a little Mrs. Dash. This is a recipe he’s tinkered with for fifty years, and the advent of chickpeas happened right around his barley phase. The addition of what looked like tiny little naked butts did not entice me to try his latest formula. As an adult, I also avoided falafel, hummus, and other chickpea-derived food because I just couldn’t shake the image.
Vegetable Challenge 