Garbanzos Are My Go-To

+ Red Squirrel to Blue Panda, do you copy?

Welcome to the upside-down world, where I eat cold barley soup when it's hot out, and then write a second blog post about how much I love garbanzo beans. But I don't include any pictures of garbanzo beans.

I don't know what day it is, I'm barely keeping afloat, but I'm trying to move forward in this confusing new environment of intense, wonderful family time mixed with trying to be a productive employee mixed with a constant feeling of uncertainty and fear. But in this strange existence, I can always count on garbanzos.

I usually cook a half-pound in my slow cooker. I gave pretty solid cooking instructions in my first blog post about how much I love garbanzos, which, weirdly, was written almost exactly a year ago.

Once the garbanzos are cooked, I ladle some of the broth into a glass, let it cool, and sip it. Sometimes my daughter comes up with a crazy look in her eyes and begs for garbanzo broth. It's pure gold, I tell ya.

Last week, I did my usual garbanzo routine. For some reason, my daughter has decided she loves sauteed spinach with lots of lemon. We had a ridiculous amount of spinach so I decided to go out on a limb and make this dish that's pictured in my first blog post about how much I love garbanzos. We had that for dinner and everyone seemed pretty happy about it (except the 4-year-old, who is only happy with buttered pasta).

The next day, I used the rest of the garbanzos to make hummus. My recipe is simple: in a food processor, I combine a couple cups of freshly cooked garbanzos with fresh lemon juice, dash of cumin, dash of Spanish smoked paprika, and salt. I don't like the taste of tahini so I don't add it. I process until very smooth, adding olive oil as I go.

All that was left was the garbanzo broth (or as it's called in some circles, pot liquor or potlikker). In a previous disaster-prepping shopping spree, I had picked up a bag of barley, so I decided to make a barley soup with the garbanzo broth. I sauteed a chopped leek in olive oil, then added the garbanzo broth and let it come to a boil. I added 1/2 cup barley, lowered the heat, and cooked until the barley was soft, 45 minutes. I also threw in some black lentils, which I don't recommend because they made the beautiful golden broth a dull, grimy grey.

Even though it didn't look great, the soup tasted great. Then it got hot in Napa, like mid-90s hot, so I tried the soup cold, garnished with radishes, preserved lemon, and parsley. That was great too, but in a strange, backwards kind of way. It seemed fitting for this strange, backwards time.

And now I'm ready for another batch of garbanzos! Anyone want to join me?

P.S. The walkie-talkie in the photo has been getting a lot of use lately. My daughter's code name is Red Squirrel and her neighbor-friend's code name is Blue Panda and they communicate often. It's pretty adorable. It made me realize that everyone needs a way to stay in touch with their friends, even the kids. We all need friends right now, even if we can't get close to them.