Hobo Cookin': Chick Pea Salad

The hobbins are in order, now, lets' get to making that dry combo!

Rather than "calling in" vittles from some "bull cook," appearing a "dino" or "dynamiter", "catting in" on another's camp or eating "bullets," I've elected to take the path of a connoisseur "chronicker" and put my tools to use. The easiest way to make this happen is to "shackle- up" a "dry combo," that way, only a "gunboat" or "tomato can" is necessary at worst--no "sizzler" required. Being that I'm a vegetarian, not  a "belly robber," as some would suggest, I'll have no need for "block scrapings" just easy recipes and basic "hoppins". That is the plan at any rate.

Said without the hobo slang courtesy of the Original Hobo Nickel Society's "Dictionary of Old Hobo Slang", once again I'm trying my hand at cooking more around the house. Of course, as my skills are pretty limited (or at the very least deteriorated), I am also starting small. How small? Can-of-chick-peas-label-recipe small!

As a vegetarian, my diet is chock full of legumes. In any week I consume between 2-3 cans of Goya Chick Peas, not including hummus. This meaty little legume goes with nearly anything from salad to soup to (as I most often eat them) simply dumped from the can, rinsed and served in a cereal bowl.

During various Epicurean explorations I've sampled and enjoyed a number of Indian and Greek dishes which include the chick pea as a key ingredient, but, other than as additions to traditional leafy salads, have failed to develop a broader repertoire of use. While not exactly creative or daring, I resolved this week to expand my chick pea palette but making the Chick Pea Salad which has frequently appeared in the cans of my preferred brand of garbanzo beans, Goya.

Look at me: I CAN chop up red bell pepper, cucumber and red onion all by myself!

Add some garlic powder, oregano, balsamic vinegar and olive oil, and...

Presto--Chick Pea Salad!

Though the completed recipe was meant to serve six(!), it only served one, moi. But it did so three times, and served as a main lunch dish served on a bed of greens the first and second times around. Easily packed into two separate Tupperware type containers, and transported in my official Green Lantern lunch bag, it was a very filling and tasty meal. The flavor was tad bland immediately after preparing, but after adding the recommended "Salt and pepper to taste," it was a pleasant meal (and snack).

 As teased on the label there are indeed more Goya recipes available online, and many of them appear to be as easy to prepare as the Chick Pea Salad.