Garbanzo Tasties

Garbanzos or chick peas are among the tastiest ingredients you can use in a recipe to make it savory indeed! They blend well with a variety of seasonings and are truly versatile in what you can make with them. These tasties are amazingly delicious and we will be making two versions of them, to show you how far they go when it comes to how you can prepare them. Enjoy!

First Version- Tasties (These are like small, homemade sausages!)

1 cup cooked garbanzos or chick peas could be from a can, (rinsed and drained)
2/3 cup brown rice flour (you can pulverize raw rice in a blender or food processor to make the flour)
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 Tbsp. peanut butter
2 Tbsp. cornstarch
Salt to taste
2 Tbsp. sweet paprika powder
1 tsp. Italian Seasoning
1 Tbsp. nutritional yeast (optional, but it adds quite a bit of flavor!)
1 Tbsp. olive oil, plus additional olive oil
1 medium size tomato
1 stalk of celery
1/2 onion, peeled and sliced
1/2 cup red bell pepper strips
1/4 cup Anaheim pepper strips or any other kind of green pepper cut into strips
1 medium sized carrot, peeled and sliced
3/4 cup water

In a blender, with half of the water the recipe asks for, process the tomato, the celery, the onion, the peppers and the carrot will smooth. Scrape into a bowl. Add the rest of he ingredients and the rest of the water, mixing well until you have a dough. Take portions of the tough in your hands and roll them to form small, thick sausages.
There are several ways you can cook these:
1- Barely "paint' a skillet with olive oil and cook them there until they are golden brown on all sides.
2- Grill them until they are golden brown on all sides.
3- You can steam them, watching them carefully and turning them around often.
4- You can bake them at 350º F, turning them often to make sure they do not burn.

While they are cooking, prepare your favorite tomato sauce (as if you were to fix pasta). Make only enough to soak your Tasties in it! Once the sausages are done, put them in a saucepan with the sauce and let them absorb some of the delicious goodness of your favorite sauce.

Serve them as a sidekick for rice, potatoes, baked yams, you name it! You can also put them into your next burrito or pita bread.

Yield depends upon the size you choose for them.

Real Hope. . .