mema's macaroni and chick peas

I have grown up eating this meal and it's one of my all time favorites. My mama makes this for me and finally I wrote down the directions so I could make it too! It's super simple and pretty healthy because chick peas, aka garbanzo beans, are so good for you! I could eat this on a regular basis but my family would probably get sick of it way before I would!

What you will need:

1 can chick peas
1 small can of tomato sauce ( I use publix greenwise organic)
1 small can of water (use your tomato sauce can)
1 small onion or some diced frozen onion (I use frozen!)
half a pound of pasta ( I used broken spaghetti tonight, but we use ditalini or elbows a lot too)


How to "fix" it, as we say down here in the south:

First off I peel my chick peas. I grew up this way and none of us like the skins floating in our pasta. This is by no means a requirement though. Lots of people apparently eat the skins, I do not. I start off by draining my chick peas into a bowl, then as I peel, I throw the skins into the can and the beans into the bowl that had the original "juice" in it. Set those aside.

In your blender add one small can of tomato sauce, some diced onion ( I use a 1/4 - 1/2 of bag of the frozen, but you do it to taste!) and one can of water. Hit puree and blend up those onions. Again this step is not necessary, but apparently I would not eat this meal if I could see the onions in it as a child, so now this is how I am accustomed to it!

Dump sauce into a sauce pan along with the chick peas and the chick pea juice (does that sound gross... what would you call it though?). Add a dash of salt and pepper to taste and let simmer on low stirring occasionally. Once you have your sauce going you can boil your water and cook your pasta. The longer your sauce cooks the more tender the chick peas will be.

When you go to add your pasta to your sauce you want it to be a soupy consistency. The pasta will absorb a lot of the sauce as it sits, so if you put too much in too soon it will dry out quickly. Also, this makes just enough for my small family, so if you have good eaters or lots to feed I would at least double this recipe. Just remember 1:1 ratio on chickpeas, tomato sauce and water and you are good to go! I top this off with some Parmesan and dig in!

If you make this let me know what you think of it (unless you hate it, than just lie to me and tell me how good you thought it was).


PS. Did you know that chick peas have tons of iron, folate, and fiber and have tons of health benefits. You can read all about them here!