Recipe(tried): Chickpea Soup and Chickpea Rice Balls (baked)

Every week for the past few weeks, I have soaked and cooked a bigggg! (starting with a couple of pounds of dried beans) pot of beans.

This past week I did a pot of chickpeas. The week before was navy beans, and the week before that was black beans. I am trying to get more fiber into our diet, and I reasoned that if they are there, ready to use, I will find a way to use them up. Of course, it helps that we all love beans, but even so, I have been trying to make it interesting.

Here are two things I made that my family really liked. The first one was originally posted by Gladys. The only change I made was cayenne in place of the harisa. You can find it here: Hummus bi'l-Kammun (Chickpea Soup with Cumin).

The rice balls were made with leftovers: leftover rice, already-prepared chickpeas, and everything else in the recipe I had on hand. I doubled the recipe and made 15 largish balls, and cooked them for about 40 minutes. I turned them halfway thru, but next time I won't bother. They got quite brown and crunchy on top, and they were kind of delicate to turn. So good enuf for me!

CHICKPEA RICE BALLS

Ingredients (I doubled everything):
1/2 cup (100 g) long-grain white rice
1 cup (250 ml) water
1 tbsp canola oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 fresh red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
2 tomatoes, peeled, deseeded and very finely chopped
1 can chickpeas (about 400 g), drained and rinsed
1 medium egg yolk
1/4 cup (15 g) chopped fresh coriander leaves
1/2 tsp paprika
salt and pepper

Put the rice in a saucepan, add the water and bring to the boil. Cover and simmer very gently for 10-15 minutes or until the rice is tender and has absorbed all the water. Remove from the heat and leave to cool for a few minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Heat the oil in a saucepan, add the onion and fry gently for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently, until soft. Stir in the garlic and chilli, then cook for 2 more minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the chopped tomatoes.

Put the chickpeas in a bowl and mash with a potato masher until fairly smooth, or pur e in a food processor. Add the onion mixture, rice, egg yolk, coriander, paprika and salt and pepper. Mix together well. Divide the mixture into 12 equal portions and shape each into a ball. (I oiled my hands a couple of times to keep the rice from sticking to me)

Place the chickpea and rice balls on a greased baking tray and bake for 30 minutes (I made bigger balls and cooked for 45 minutes) or until beginning to brown, turning them over carefully halfway through the cooking. (I won't bother turning them next time) Serve hot.