Healthy chickpea

With just a handful of chickpeas you can prepare a healthy and delicious meal in a jiffy. Here are two healthy chickpeas recipes, which will guarantee you a great, nutritious meal in minutes. We start with a wonderful low calorie treat for hot summer afternoons - the chickpea soup. And move on to a healthy couscous chickpea salad recipe, which is not only tasty but super healthy as it is full of vegetables and makes for a perfect healthy lunch box treat. Important tip: If you aren't using canned and therefore ready-to-use chickpeas, then make sure that you soak them for at least 8 hours before use. Simply dunk them in some water, with a depth of at least an inch from the chickpeas to the water's rim. The longer the soak for, the quicker they'll cook. Summer chickpea soup Ingredients 1 tablespoon of olive oil 1 finely chopped onion 1 garlic cloves 1 cup of chickpeas 1 litre of vegetable stock 1 tablespoon of lime juice 3 tablespoon of fresh parsley 2 tablespoon of fresh mint 1 cup of natural yogurt Method - Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large pan and saute garlic and onion over medium heat for 5 minutes. - Add the chickpeas and vegetable stock and let it come to a boil. - After a boil, let it simmer for ideally 15 minutes. - Now take half of the soup and blend it nice until a smooth mixture is formed. Now add the mixture to the pan. Your soup must have thickened by now. Check for its creamy consistency. - Finish it by adding parsley, mint and lime juice. Your summer chickpea soup is ready! Healthy couscous chickpea salad Ingredients 1 tomato 1 thinly sliced cucumber 1 cup of Chickpeas ½ cup of Lentils ½ cup of Couscous 1 tablespoon of vinegar 1 tablespoon of lemon juice 1 tablespoon of olive oil Salt (to taste) Method - Take a bowl and add ½ cup of boiling water and couscous in it. Cover and let it stand for 5 minutes. - Now fluff the couscous with a fork and add a bit of olive oil to it. - Throw in tomato, chickpeas, lentils and cucumber to the couscous bowl. - Top it with lime juice, salt, the leftover oil and vinegar. Mix all the ingredients together. Your healthy couscous chickpea salad is ready.