Happy 2016! How was your New Years? I hope it was filled with tons of delicious food and the most lovely people. Just like mine. We, of course, heated up the sauna(s), ate like there's no tomorrow, jammed, played Cards Against Humanity and had too much fun with it. I even got a break from cooking when the guests cooked buckwheat and avocado salad with orange and homemade khinkali. I am so thankful for my incredible family and friends.
It still takes some time to get out of that festive holiday regime and get back to the regular life. But that can be awesome too, if you make it that way. I make sure I get enough walks outside (even though it is FREEZING in Estonia at the moment, but still beautiful), exercise and enjoy the movement of the body, focus on the projects I really want to make and of course, eat the food I really crave.
I also wanted to add some protein, so chickpeas were a natural choice. To make everything even better, I served it with creamy homemade sunflower sour cream, cherry tomatoes and ground black pepper. Perfection in a bowl! It's a very simple recipe, but happens to be my huge favorite, so I just had to share it with you. It's also a great post-workout meal. Have a delicious new year!
Preparation time: 15 - 20 minutes.
Serves: 4 people
Ingredients:
- 2 Tbsp oil
- one large head of broccoli (about 17 ½ oz / 500 g)
- ½ cup / 120 ml hot water
- 14 oz / 400 g can of chickpeas
- ½ tsp salt
For serving:
- rice noodles (about 9 oz / 250 g)
- a few handfuls of cherry tomatoes
- some soy sauce or tamari
- ground black pepper
- sunflower sour cream
Directions:
Heat up a thick-bottomed sauce pan. Remove the broccoli stalk and slice the bigger florets. Add the florets to the sauce pan. Cook for a minute and then add hot water. Cover the pan with a lid and let the broccoli simmer for about 10 minutes. Depends on how soft you want it. I like mine rather soft (in the meantime you can also boil the sunflower seeds for the sour cream). Add drained and rinsed chickpeas and salt. Stir and cook for a couple of minutes. Remove the heat.
Boil the rice noodles. Drain and rinse. I also like to add a tiny bit of olive oil, so they won't stick together. Make the sunflower sour cream. Now add a handful of rice noodles into a bowl. I like to drizzle them with a tiny bit of soy sauce or tamari. Then add broccoli and chickpeas, sliced cherry tomatoes, a dollop of sunflower sour cream and freshly ground black pepper. Enjoy!
