Essene Market & Cafe‘s Tim McFarlane: I like to cook, but I’m finding that I have little time and, sometimes, even little patience for gathering ingredients for complicated meals. Additionally, my wife, Eva, and I have conflicting work schedules, which makes things difficult. So we have found that the quicker we can make a meal, the better. My way of cooking tends to be to bring a hodge-podge of things together to make a meal, and I don’t really follow exact recipes and will put all sorts of flavors together, sometimes to the detriment of my (and Eva’s) taste buds.
Like a lot of relationships, the union between Eva and myself is a good example of how “opposites attract.” For the purposes of this feature, I will stick to our differences in food tastes. The biggest difference is that I am a vegetarian and Eva comes from a background where meat is a part of almost every dish. That said, we have come up with meat-free compromises, like our Quick Paprika Garbanzo dish. Enjoy!
Essene Market & Café’s Tim’s Quick Paprika Garbanzo Dish
Servings: 4-6
Ingredients:
- 2 cans of garbanzo beans, drained in a pot
- 2 cans of crushed tomatoes (plain or with Italian spices)
- 1 can of water (use empty tomato can)
- 3 inches of vegetarian chorizo
- ¾ tsp sweet paprika
- a dash of dried parsley
- 1 cup of rice
Instructions:
- Cook rice.
- Then add all of the above ingredients in a large pot until liquid is consumed. NOTE: You can crumble up the vegetarian chorizo before adding it to the pot, if you prefer.
- Simmer mixture for about 30-60 minutes, stirring occasionally. Enjoy!
Alternate: Add potatoes with more water for a heartier dish.
To Reheat: Add a dash of oil to a frying pan and add mix. Cook and stir until warm.
