Why do chickpeas smell like farts?

No, really. Why?

I eventually got my butt into gear on the weekend, and organised myself enough to know I would be cooking something with chickpeas on Sunday so on Saturday evening I put some dried chickpeas in a bowl and let them soak overnight.

The next morning (or early afternoon by the time I got motivated to cook), I drained them to discover they stank real bad.

I guess it goes into the same series of questions like “why does asparagus make your wee smell?” and “why does cabbage make you fart?”.

Yep. I’m hitting the hard questions today!

Fortunately chickpeas are nutritious and DELICIOUS so once you move past the unfavourable smell, there is SO much you can do with them.

It is a miserable day here in Melbourne town – rain, cold and more rain. Lucky me once again got stuck with train delays (Metro, get your act into gear PLEASE) and then a lack of trams meant I had to walk 2.2km to work in the rain. So after a soggy start, I think I’m nearly dry and am nursing a soy cappuccino.

So last week was ANZAC day, and it was once again a freezing day. This year, L-whack and I did not attend the dawn service so to mark the day, I decided to bake some ANZAC cookies!! I used a basic recipe from BBC Foodonline, and they turned out pretty well. Instead of butter, I substituted it with nuttelex. BAM vegan friendly!

Lest we forget... by eating cookies!!

It was moving watching the live broadcast of the dawn service in Gallipoli, and the Last Post brought a tear to my eye. It does every time. Although I did have to giggle when they played the national anthem of Australia, and all the aussies in the crowd patriotically sang their heart out – until the second verse… then there was lots of confused faces and silence. For those non-Aussies reading this post, NO ONE knows the words to the second verse of our anthem. Except PM Julia Gillard (who was singing at this service – at least she gets ONE thing right…). I guess it’s not deemed important enough to teach us in primary school, and it’s rare when the second verse is sung so no one has made the effort to learn verse 2!

Poor L-whack then came down with the flu. So being the world’s best girlfriend that I am, I made a tasty batch of ribollita soup on Saturday afternoon, which is one of the easiest and tastiest dishes I’ve ever made. So big up to Vegie Head for creating such a delicious, nutritious and simple recipe! GET ON IT!

On Sunday, I met up with Litha for brunch at The Mercy Seat in Collingwood – I’d heard some good things about it, so I was keen to check it out. It’s a fully vegetarian café, and obviously have vegan options.

Litha and I started with a coffee, which was given extra credit for the art on top when it arrived!! A decent strength shot, and they use Bonsoy which is a bonus. However I was a little meh about them charging extra for soy. I mean, it’s a vegetarian café so I would say that at least half of their clientele would opt for soy over dairy milk.

Coffee love

For food, Litha ordered the scrambled tofu on toast (after lots of umming and ahhing!) and I had the bircher muesli with coconut yoghurt.

I must say when they delivered our food to the table, I nearly died at the miniscule size that my muesli came. It was in a small tumbler, and only filled half the glass. HOWEVER, it was delicious and very filling so it hit the spot. Perhaps $10 was a little steep but it's not often I eat out so...

Litha enjoyed her scramble, and didn’t make it through the whole plate!

Scrambled tofu

Bircher muesli with coconut yoghurt

We decided to lash out, and share a Mister Nice Guy cupcake. YUMMMMMMMM!! Ladies and Gentleman, please introduce yourself to Betty White - Coconut frosting on chocolate cake, topped w toasted coconut flakes + chocolate ganache. Delish.

Betty White rocks!

Once Litha dropped me at home, I went through a pile of recipes that I had bookmarked for cooking, and settled on a Curried quinoa, chickpea and red lentil curry. A dish full of protein that’s also healthy, nutritious and budget friendly!

I am SO glad I made this, it is seriously yum!

Curried Quinoa, Chickpea and Red Lentil Soup
2 tsp olive oil

½ onion, chopped (I used 1 whole onion)

4 medium carrots, diced

2 stalks of celery, diced

2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

1 thumb sized piece of ginger, finely chopped

3 tsp curry powder

1 tsp promite (or soy sauce) (I used soy sauce, and added an extra tbspn or so)

1 tsp seeded mustard

1 tsp chilli paste

Shake of smoked paprika

1 cup dried red lentils

5½ cups vegetable stock

2 x 400g tins of diced tomatoes (I needed to use up some passata, so I added 400ml of passata and 1 400g tin of tomatoes)

2 cups of cooked chickpeas

2½ cups cooked quinoa (I used white)

Small bunch of parsley, chopped

Heat the oil in a stockpot. Add the onions, carrots and celery and saute until soft - about 15-20 minutes.

Add the remaining ingredients (except parsley) and adjust seasoning. Simmer for 10-15 minutes til the lentils are cooked. 

Add parsley right before serving.

Nom nom nom...

And finally, Jessica Simpson finally had her baby (yesterday's totally random post was ironic timing). Man, it felt like she was preggers for AGES! Imagine what it must've felt like for her......