Chickpea Anxiety

On Monday evening, I entered the most chaotic grocery store in Manhattan armed with something I rarely, if ever, go shopping with: a list.

I needed garlic, red onion, scallions, limes, chiles. But something happens once I leave the produce department for the canned goods aisle: I experience what I can describe only as chickpea amnesia.

Wait, do I have chickpeas at home? I closed my eyes and envisioned my pantry. There are cans on that shelf, for sure. The labels on them, though, came through blurry, a mirage of indiscernible beans. So I did what I do practically every time I grocery shop, and I grabbed a single can of chickpeas, just in case. One can won’t be too heavy in my tote, and what’s $1.39 among friends (or shopper and megacorp)?

When I got home, I had to laugh. I had chickpeas, all right. Cans upon cans of them. “I do the exact same thing, and, weirdly, only with chickpeas!” exclaimed my colleague Becky Hughes, the mind behind our chickpea-topped vegan Caesar recipe. She calls it chickpea anxiety, always picking up a single insurance can. Its affordability — and the fact that a substantial weeknight meal can come from just one can — is justification enough.

It’s time to tap into those reserves, starting with Sheela Prakash’s simple roasted chickpeas or Ali Slagle’s skillet brown-butter chickpeas for garnishing salads throughout the week. Either uses up two cans.

So too will Rick Martinez’s vegan roasted broccoli and chickpeas with mole verde (above), vibrant with spinach and cilantro, tangy with tomatillos and spiced up with poblanos. “We licked our bowls clean,” wrote Andrea, a reader, beneath the recipe. As you should — you’re in the comfort of your home!