Chickpeas a la king (gluten-free and vegan)

I remember eating this dish when I was a kid, which just adds another layer of comfort to this food. Leaving out the butter and using low-fat milk takes away the calories while canola oil brings a rich flavor. Also, I love how quick this recipe is to throw together— chopping the vegetables takes the longest.

I adapted this recipe from the book Vegan Vittles by Joanne Stepaniak. I’ve made it both vegetarian and vegan, and both were yummy.

Ingredients

1 cup chopped mushrooms
2 small shallots or scallions, diced
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1/2 cup peas
1 cup cauliflower
other vegetables of your choosing.

3 cups milk (dairy or nondairy; I used unsweetened almond milk)

1 can of chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup chickpea flour
1/4 cup nutritional yeast (I used Bragg’s)
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp thyme
salt and pepper to taste
1 tbsp canola oil

1. Heat the canola oil in a saucepan. Add the mushrooms, bell peppers and scallions, and saute until the veggies are soft.

2. Add in the spices— salt, pepper, thyme, rosemary, paprika and nutritional yeast. The yeast will start to thicken things up, so you might want to add a touch more oil at this point.

3. Add the chickpea flour, and stir constantly for about one minute.

4. Take the pan off the heat. Gradually, stir in the milk, about a half cup at a time. Make sure that no lumps are forming.

5. Put the pan back on the burner, and gradually bring the mixture to a medium boil. Toss in the chickpeas and green peas, and reduce heat to low.

6. Heat those garbanzos over low heat, for about five minutes.

Serve over rice, quinoa, toast, or your favorite grain.

The vegetarian version I served over cauliflower; the vegan one was served with quinoa, and also had peas. And because I like to make things in large batches to take to work for lunch, I was happy to find that the dairy version reheated nicely.