Crispy chickpea rice bowls
Smoky, crunchy chickpeas over fluffy rice with cool cucumber and a big swoosh of hummus, all from one skillet and one pot.
- 40 min total
- 20 min hands-on
- Follow-a-recipe easy
- Serves 2
- About $3.53 a serving
- 820 calories
- Vegan
- Gluten-free
- Dairy-free
Dolly says: Most of the time here is hands-off, so you can sit down while it cooks.
Ingredients
For 2 servings.
- 1 cup jasmine rice
- 1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- ½ english cucumber, diced
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
- ½ cup hummus
- 1 lemon, cut into wedges
- 2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped (optional)
From your pantry
- 1½ cups water
- ¾ tsp salt, divided
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- ½ tsp garlic powder
- ½ tsp ground cumin
- ¼ tsp black pepper
Each serving has about 820 calories, 26 g protein, 126 g carbs and 25 g fat, and costs about $3.53 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No jasmine rice? Long-grain white rice or basmati rice works.
- No english cucumbers? Cucumbers or mini cucumbers work.
- No lemons? Limes work.
- No fresh parsley? Cilantro works.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
Put the rice in a strainer and it under cold water, swishing it with your fingers, until the water runs mostly clear, about 30 seconds.
Rinse. Rinsing means running cold water over rice or canned beans in a strainer while you swish them around. It washes off loose starch and can liquid, so rice cooks up fluffy and beans taste clean.
How you’ll know: The water running out goes from cloudy to mostly clear; it doesn’t have to be perfect.
Dolly’s tip: Rinsing washes off the loose starch that turns rice gummy.Add the rice, water and ¼ teaspoon salt to a small and over high heat.
Saucepan. A saucepan is a pot with tall, straight sides and one long handle. It’s for things that need depth, like rice, sauces or a few boiled eggs.
How you’ll know: The food fills it about halfway, leaving room to bubble without spilling over.
Bring to a boil. It means heating a liquid on high until it’s fully boiling before you move on. A lid on the pot gets it there faster, which makes it a good moment to chop something.
How you’ll know: Big bubbles break all over the surface, and they keep coming when you lift the lid.
High heat
Stir once, cover, and to low. Cook for 15 minutes without lifting the lid.
Reduce the heat. It means turning the burner down, usually to medium-low or low, so food cooks gently instead of hard. Electric burners cool slowly, so lift the pan off for a moment if it’s bubbling hard.
How you’ll know: Within a minute the bubbling calms to a gentle simmer, or the sizzle turns quiet.
Low heatTimer: 15 min
Dolly’s tip: No peeking. The steam trapped under the lid is what cooks the rice.While the rice cooks, the chickpeas very dry with paper towels, rubbing off any loose skins that come away.
Pat dry. Patting dry means pressing paper towels onto food to soak up the moisture on its surface. Wet food steams instead of browning, so this is how you get a good sear and crisp skin.
How you’ll know: The surface feels tacky, not wet, and the last paper towel comes away barely damp.
Dolly’s tip: Dry chickpeas get crispy. Wet ones just steam.Heat the olive oil in a large over medium-high heat until it , then add the chickpeas in a single layer.
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Shimmering oil. Oil shimmers when it’s hot enough to cook: its surface looks rippled and wavy, like heat over a road. That’s your cue to add the food, just before the oil would start to smoke.
How you’ll know: The oil looks wavy and runs thin like water when you tilt the pan, with no smoke yet.
Medium-high heat
Cook, shaking the pan every couple of minutes, until the chickpeas are and all over, 8 to 10 minutes.
Golden brown. Golden brown is the color of good toast, somewhere between yellow and light brown. It means the outside is cooked and crisp but not burnt.
How you’ll know: It looks like toast and smells toasty; dark brown with a bitter smell means it went too far.
Crispy. Crispy means the outside is dry, firm and crunchy. It comes from high heat, a little oil and room in the pan, because crowded food steams and goes soft.
How you’ll know: It sounds crunchy when you tap or bite it, and it doesn’t flop when you lift it.
Medium-high heatTimer: 9 min
Dolly’s tip: A few may pop and jump. That’s normal, and a lid held loosely over the pan catches them.Turn off the heat, sprinkle in the smoked paprika, garlic powder, cumin, pepper and ½ teaspoon salt, and to coat.
Toss. Tossing means gently lifting and turning food so everything gets coated, like pasta in sauce or vegetables in oil. It coats every piece evenly without mashing anything.
How you’ll know: Every piece looks glossy or evenly coated, with no dry spots hiding underneath.
Dolly’s tip: The spices go in off the heat so they toast in the warm oil instead of burning.When the rice timer goes off, take the pan off the heat and let it sit, still covered, for 5 minutes. Then fluff it with a fork.
Timer: 5 min
While the rice rests, the cucumber and the cherry tomatoes.
Dice. Dicing means cutting food into small, even cubes, usually a quarter to half an inch across. Pieces the same size cook at the same speed, so nothing burns while the rest catches up.
How you’ll know: Your pieces are little cubes about the size of a chickpea, and they all look close to the same.
Halve. Halving means cutting something into two equal pieces. Even halves cook at the same speed, so one doesn’t dry out while the other finishes.
How you’ll know: The two pieces look like mirror images of each other.
Spoon the rice into two bowls and top with the chickpeas, cucumber, tomatoes and a big scoop of hummus. Squeeze lemon over everything and scatter the parsley on top.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
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