Tart Pan-Roasted Chickpeas with Black Olives and Barley

Here’s a one-pot supper for friends, or for a work night when you want something quick.

This pan roasting technique infuses flavors so quickly, especially when the chickpeas brown and begin tasting a little like hazelnuts. Boiling down a little vinegar with them makes for a subtle snap. Serve the pan roast hot or warm with a salad of baby arugula or an orange salad with red onion.

Cook to Cook: The larger the pan, the faster this cooks.

For the canned vegetable broth, I wish I could recommend an organic broth, but all I have tasted so far are packed with carrots and/or other sweet ingredients, which makes them so sweet they throw off the balance of most recipes. This adds up to my suggesting College Inn or Swanson’s vegetable broths, not ideal, but the best choices found so far.

The second and third day the dish gets better and better. This doubles easily.

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons good tasting extra-virgin olive oil

• 2 tablespoons wine or cider vinegar

• 10 pitted Kalamata olives, coarsely chopped

• 1 15-ounce can chickpeas, rinsed and drained

• 1/2 of a medium red onion, chopped

• Salt and fresh-ground black pepper

• 3 tight packed tablespoons fresh mint leaves, torn

• 1 large clove garlic, minced

• 2/3 cup quartered grape tomatoes

• 1/2 tablespoon vinegar

• 1 generous teaspoon tomato paste

• 1/2 to 1 cup vegetable broth (homemade preferred, or see Cook to Cook)

• 1-1/2 cups cooked barley (1/2 cup raw)

Instructions

1. Pour the oil and the 2 tablespoons vinegar into a straight-sided 12-inch saut é pan. Set over high heat. Once bubbling, add the olives, chickpeas, onion, and generous salt and pepper. Sauté, stirring often, for 4 minutes, or until the chickpeas are browning. Don’t let them burn.

2. Stir in about two-thirds of the mint, all the garlic, tomatoes, and the 1/2-tablespoon of the vinegar. Stir and cook over medium high until the tomatoes start to soften (3 minutes). Blend in the tomato paste, 1/2 cup of broth, and the barley. Adjust the heat so the broth simmers. Cook, uncovered, 5 minutes, or until nearly half the liquid is simmered off. Taste for seasoning. Serve hot, or at room temperature sprinkled with the remaining mint.

Variation: Pan-Crisped Chickpea-Barley Patties

Blend grated cheese (1 part cheese to 2 parts leftovers) into leftover chickpea-barley sauté. Shape into 1/2 to 3/4-inch thick patties and chill 30 minutes.

Dip them in egg, roll in fresh breadcrumbs or Japanese Panko crumbs, and pan-fry in about 1/4 to a 1/2 inch vegetable to golden and crisp.