Fresh garbanzo beans!

On a recent trip to Whole Foods, I was excited to find fresh garbanzo beans. Fresh garbanzo beans reside in paper-thin pods that look like tiny oval pumpkins. In order to eat them, one must pop open the pod to find the bean inside. The bean is a beautiful pale green and tastes like a lighter version of the classic pea.

What to do with these little gems? They would look great scattered throughout a salad. In the Middle East they are commonly smashed into a hummus, another good idea. Still, I felt the need to look further. Often the entire pods are pan-fried and then eaten out of the pods like edamame. The pod itself can be made into a tea. In Mexico they are steamed and tossed with chili & lime. That sounded good!

A few years ago, my friend, Jennifer Wickes came up with a delicious recipe for edamame as a brushetta appetizer, pictured above. That sounded about right. I would make a green garbanzo brushetta – yum! Photos tomorrow!