Green Garbanzo Beans

In my never ending quest to find unique things to eat, yesterday I discovered fresh garbanzo beans (also known as chick peas or cicci beans, depending on where you live.)

I was at the store to buy plantains to go with my sort-of-Cuban inspired meal (with Mojito shrimp and Watermelon Mojitos - I have lots of mint in my garden!) As I was perusing the produce section of a downscale market (it isn't a Latin market but caters a lot to the Hispanic community and it's one of those stores you have to bag your own groceries to save money) to find some jicama for the black bean salad I saw these odd little papery pods. I felt them and they had beans inside. I had to root around for a sign in English to tell me what they were. I finally deduce that they were fresh garbanzo beans.

Now I like garbanzo beans. I have since I was a kid. I eat them in salads, ground into hummus, in soup, just about any way you can. But I had never even seen them fresh before (mine have always come from a can. I know you can get them dried but I never have.) They were about three dollars a pound and I decided to get a few handfuls, come home to look up what you do with them in the 'net and try them. I got about thirty or so of the little buggers and it cost me a whopping thirty-nine cents. (It would take a LOT of them to equal a pound!)

On the Web it said that mostly they are eaten kind of steam-fried in the shell which you pop open and eat the bright green bean inside (you can also eat them raw). So I toasted the pods in a little oil then steamed them a few minutes, added salt and them we munched, kind of like edamame. They were delicious. Most people likened the flavor to that of a fresh pea, which my mom agreed with, but I thought they tasted like a garbanzo bean. Heck, what do I know?

So if you see these little guys at your farmers market or gourmet grocery, give them a try (or if you are cheap like me, you can search them out at Hispanic and Asian markets.) Delicious, easy and good for you food.