I’ve been meaning to eat more beans… because to me beans are an acquired taste.
Rice and beans is a staple in most Puerto Rican meals, except in mine. My mom eats them but never cooked them at home. My grandma would make rice and beans almost every day… and for the first 17 years of my life I got offered rice and beans everyday to eat and every day I would say no, thanks. I would only eat the rice and the sauce of the beans. The actual beans… never.
I truly do not know what happened about 10 years ago, but I saw this nice plate of garbanzos and I not only had the sauce, I actually put some garbanzos in my plate. I liked them. I still do not crave them, but I can enjoy them up to a point.
Because my mom never made beans at home, I never learned to make them from her. And when my grandma was making beans each day, I was not interested in learning how to make them. So this recipe is my way to learning how to make beans in a way I would enjoy eating them the most. This recipe had several incarnations… but by far this is the best one so far. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
CHICKPEA COCIDO
1 tsp olive oil ½ vegetable bouillon cube 2 tbs sofrito 1 small onion, chopped ½ green bell pepper, chopped 1 small carrot, peeled and sliced thin ½ can stewed tomatoes ½ chopped tomato 1 small can garbanzo beans 1 roasted red pepper 5 manzanilla olives, chopped 2 tbs tomato sauce 1 bay leaf ½ tsp Herbamare Salt and freshly cracked pepper
- In a medium saucepan over medium heat, add the olive oil, ½ bouillon cube, sofrito, onion and pepper. Sautee everything for about 5-6 minutes until onions start to get translucent.
- Add the carrots, the tomatoes and the garbanzo beans. Now add the red peppers, olives, tomato sauce, bay leaf and season with salt, pepper and Herbamare seasoning. If you would like more sauce… add about ¼ cup of water.
- Simmer over medium/low heat for about 20 minutes. Turn the stove off and let it continue cooking for about 10-15 minutes.
Serve over whole grain rice or over steamed potatoes.
KarmaFree Cooking 
Hello,
Could you tell me more about Herbamare and where I might find it?
Thanks!
KFC – Herbamare is a delicious seasoning salt made by blending 14 fresh organic herbs and vegetables that are steeped for over a year in pure sea salt. It contains celery, leeks, watercress, garden cress, onion, chives, parsley, lovage, garlic, basil, marjoram, rosemary, thyme and kelp. The herbs and vegetables used in Herbamare are organically grown in Switzerland and mixed when fresh with sun-dried sea salt collected from the Atlantic coast of France. Visit their website: http://www.rapunzel.com/products/avogel/avogel_seasoning_herbamare.html
You can find Herbamare in almost every health food store or health supermarket like Whole Foods, Central Market, Trader Joe’s, etc.