The Amazing Garbanzo Bean

With spinach and mushroom

You may have noticed in the Today's Tucker reports that I have been eating a lot of hummus this past week. While I may regret saying this a few meals down the line, I have discovered that hummus is the wonder food of the road! A .79 cent can of chick peas is the main ingredient for this meal and you can add just about anything to change the tastes and textures. The initial ingredients cost about $4 and after that each meal is about $2 depending on what you want to add.

So why is this my new wonder meal? Well it's really all about the wonder of the chickpea, otherwise known as the garbanzo bean. Fun facts about chickpeas:

• In 1973 it was found that ground chickpeas were a good substitute for coffee beans and in WWII they were widely used for this in Europe due to a shortage of coffee
• Chickpeas can be ground and used as a type of flour called gram or besan which is widely used in Indian cooking
• They can be eaten cooked or raw
• One cup of chickpeas can give you 30% of your daily protein. I know that us vehicle dwellers don't tend to be vegetarians, but this is great when you're lacking meat on the road
• India produces more chickpeas than any other country (5,970,000 tons in 2008)
• They're super low in fat, very high in fiber and iron, and have been shown to lower cholesterol and be good for people with diabetes or insulin sensitivities
• No refrigeration needed (awesome for me)
• Chickpeas are often made into wasabi peas, also awesome

So there you have it. This is why I'm so psyched about hummus and, I say this with all honesty, I hate (not too strong a word) hate raw chickpeas. The texture, the taste, the whole pea. I love (also not too strong a word) hummus, which is weird considering the last statement. So if you haven't tried making hummus, do. It works even better with a food processor but a fork is all I've needed. Add pepper, garlic, lemon, spinach, (or all of them?) and see what you come up with.