Chickpeas with Roasted Red Peppers

Although I typically feature main dishes on the blog, it's equally important to have easy side dishes in the cooking repertoire. This is especially true now, when access to fresh vegetables is more limited. This chickpea dish is perfect for this purpose. Most of the ingredients are pantry staples, and the bell pepper keeps relatively well in the refrigerator. It can also be left simmering more or less indefinitely while a more labor-intensive dish is prepared. In this case, I made fried calamari. 

This recipe is loosely based on a chickpea dish Dad used to make for his Spanish wine class. The original had Spanish chorizo, which is somewhat hard to come by in these parts. I converted it into a completely vegetarian dish by replacing the chorizo with a roasted bell pepper. Roasting a pepper is easy to do directly on a gas stove, but a grill or broiler work fine, too. 

This was also a good opportunity to show my (relatively) new saucier. A saucier is similar to a saucepan, but with sloping sides. They are perfect for a dish where there is need for both a saute and simmer. The sloping sides make tossing easy, but there is still enough volume for liquid. When cooking tomatoes or other acidic foods for a long period of time, I've read a nonreactive pan is best. Stainless steel, lined copper, or enameled work best here. The pan I used has a three layer construction which sandwiches conductive aluminum with nonreactive stainless steel.

Ingredients

• 1 red bell pepper
• 1/2 yellow onion, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tsp. paprika
• 1/4 cup dry white wine
• 1/2 can diced tomatoes (about 7 oz.)
• 1 15 oz. can chickpeas
• 1/2 lemon
• Chopped flat leaf parsley
• Salt and black pepper to taste
• Olive oil

Instructions

Roast the bell pepper, turning until charred and black all over. This is most easily done directly on a gas stove or grill. Without access to a direct flame, the best alternative is to cut the pepper in half and broil. Set aside to cool. Once cooled, rub the charred skin off under running water and dice.

In a saucepan or saucier (stainless steel or lined copper), heat a little olive oil on medium heat. Saute the onion for several minutes, until softened. Season onion with salt as it cooks. Add the garlic and paprika and cook another minute, stirring frequently. 

Add the wine, stir together, and add the tomatoes with some of the juice from the can. Drain the chickpeas and add to the pan. Add the diced red pepper. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for at least 20 minutes, or as long as required to prepare the rest of the meal. I let it go about an hour.

Before serving, squeeze about half a lemon into the chickpeas and season to taste with salt and pepper. Transfer to a serving dish and garnish with chopped parsley.