A friend of ours who purchases supplies for a culinary school slipped us a few of these fresh, green beauties the other day. We felt like we were "in" on some clandestine culinary transaction!
Breaking open the pod revealed two perfect garbanzo beans nestled snugly against each other. We ate them right there, popping one and then the other into our mouth with glee.
They have a clean grassy taste, very similar to fresh peas. Firm yet chewy, they're not entirely different from canned garbanzo beans, though these had a bit more of a raw fibery texture to them.
The fuzzy pods aren't hard to open. The seam splits when you pinch the top and you can pop the beans out with your thumb. Shelling a bucket might get tiresome, but it's worth it for this rare treat!
You can eat them raw, as we did, either by themselves or in a fresh spring salad. They would also be fantastic steamed or sauteed with a bit of butter and served as a side dish or over pasta.
We'd also love to try them edamame-style: steamed and salted while still in their pods, then use our teeth to split open the shells and grab the beans. This would make such a fun and unusual appetizer at a dinner party!
Unfortunately, fresh garbanzo beans are a blink-and-miss-it kind of vegetable, especially in the Northeast. Whole Foods has them on occasion, but Mexican and Asian markets are probably your best bet for scoring a few pounds. Folks in the south and west coast will probably have better luck finding them at farmers markets.
Any favorite recipes for fresh garbanzo beans?
Related: Seasonal Spotlight--English Peas
(Photo Credit: Emma Christensen for the Kitchn)
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Those garbanzos actually kind of remind me of an Anne Geddes photo - cute, but also a little creepy :-)
Leah
The Jew & The Carrot
http://www.jcarrot.org
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Wow despite the fact that chickpeas aren't some artificial construct it never occurred to me what they looked like fresh. I think I considered them to be like peanuts underground or something.
view sally599's profile
In Chicago, you can find them at the Maxwell Street Market in the summertime.
view art's profile
We see them all the time in the Mission District of SF, in the Latin American markets. I love taking out of town visitors there and showing them fresh garbanzo beans for the first time.
view Kathryn Hill's profile
kathryn, are there any markets in particular in the mission that you like or where you've seen these? i'd love to find some - thanks!
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I live in San Francisco and have been looking for these for the past couple years, after accidently finding them at Cala once. We looked in the MIsson this weekend as well - nothing. Where do you get them? We just planted them a couple weeks ago, but I think it will take a bit before we actually see them! Would love to get some in the mean time!
Thanks!
view ChezUS's profile
In Oregon (Eugene at least) we have them at the local Winco.
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