RAS EL HANOUT CHICKPEAS

Chickpeas with Ras el Hanout are an easy, quick, and healthy recipe that you can prepare any day of the week with little effort to obtain an excellent result.

What do you need? Vegetables, chickpeas and spices.

A little vegetable broth will also come in handy, although it is not essential.

You can prepare Ras el Hanout chickpeas in advance and save them to eat in the following days, it is an express recipe that helps you organize.

Whether you are vegetarian or vegan or not, this recipe is for you.

Why?

Because of its nutritional value and its organoleptic value, which is delicious, and you are going to love it.

As you already know, chickpeas are a very versatile legume, they can be used in a multitude of recipes and preparations and if there is one thing it stands out for, it is that they can be prepared in advance without losing their properties.

This gives it many advantages, allowing you to organize yourself and ensure that you always have a healthy dish ready at any time. moment.

Chickpeas are a must that cannot be missing in the weekly diet planning, at least in mine, it can be a stew, hummus or a stir-fry, even a crunchy snack!.

 

Ras el Hanout is a Moroccan spice mix, full of flavor and color.

 

To make these chickpeas in Ras el Hanout, I recommend preparing some vegetables, for example onion, carrot, green pepper, and zucchini.

This is what I usually put in, but the ideal is to vary the combination depending on what you have available. Eggplant, leek, red onion, red pepper go very well with it, you can even add tomato.

Always keep in mind that The more variety of vegetables you consume, the greater the amount of polyphenols you will contribute to your diet to benefit from their antioxidant power.

As for chickpeas, their nutritional value lies in the fact that they provide protein, about 19 g / 100 g of food, but their limiting amino acid is methionine.

This means that they do not provide a complete protein.

 

 

What is a limiting amino acid?

For a food to provide a complete protein, said protein must contain all the essential amino acids, those that our body cannot synthesize.

There are foods that do not provide all the essential amino acids, the amino acid they lack is the limiting amino acid.

Therefore, the limiting amino acid is one that is found in low or no proportion in a certain food.

To solve this situation, you must resort to protein complementation, providing foods that do contain that or those amino acids limitations.

 

Accompany these chickpeas with a food that contains methionine, rice or quinoa, they are perfect.

 

A clear example are the classic recipes of chickpeas with rice or lentils with rice, in those traditional dishes protein supplementation was already taken into account in order to obtain a better quality protein.

Let’s continue with the chickpeas in this recipe, to prepare them the first step is to cook them, you can do it yourself in a pressure cooker, this way the process will be faster.

If you decide to use dried chickpeas, the first step is soaking, for 12 hours or more, in addition to hydrating them so that cooking is faster, soaking eliminates anti-nutrients, especially phytates.

The Phytates, present in legumes, but also in many cereals, have the property of being chelating, they capture minerals and prevent their correct absorption, so it is important to eliminate them. Discard the soaking water and cook the chickpeas in clean water. The quick option is to use already cooked canned chickpeas, there are very good quality ones and you save a lot of work.

 

About the chelating effects of phytates and how they can affect our health, I recommend the following study where you can learn more.

Brouns F. (2021). Phytic Acid and Whole Grains for Health Controversy. Nutrients, 14(1), 25. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu14010025

This article concludes that avoiding the consumption of whole grains and legumes because they containgan phytic acid, it is not justified.

And if you want more details on the anti-nutrients present in legumes, consult this entry.

 

To obtain a complete protein, add cooked quinoa or rice to the stir-fry.

 

It’s time to continue with our recipe, when we have all the ingredients ready, that is, the chopped vegetables and the cooked chickpeas, it is about making a stir-fry.

First the vegetables, and then add the chickpeas with the spices, a little water or vegetable broth and mix well.

You have to cook it for 15 minutes and Ready.

A delicious, easy, quick and very economical dish.

I usually have it as a side dish with some meat, lamb, chicken or egg, but if you are vegan, the best option is to add a glass of cooked quinoa to the stir-fry to get the complete protein.

If you feel like preparing it, I leave you the complete recipe below. Cheers! 😉

 

Related posts:

• Vegan diet. What is protein supplementation?
• Legumes and anti-nutrients.