Lebanese Balila (chickpeas with garlic and olive oil) - under 30 minutes

Name: Lebanese Balila (chickpeas with garlic and olive oil) - under 30 minutes
Total time: 900 s
Yield: 2 servings
Cuisine: British
Ingredients: 1 can chickpeas; Water; Juice of half a lemon; 2 small garlic cloves; Salt; 1/4 teaspoon cumin powder; Extra virgin olive oil for topping

Linda L. @lindzi

Lebanese

One of my cooking resolutions for 2023 is to cook more varieties and not say “OK I’ll just make a basic omelette for dinner”. Whether it’s a more elaborated dish or a simple one, if I feel like it, I’ll make it! 😊💪

This is a dish that we usually have for breakfast on Sundays in Lebanon. Goes well as a quick lunch or as a side.

Definitely better to prepare using freshly cooked chickpeas, but canned ones do the job.

This is a dish that we usually have for breakfast on Sundays in Lebanon. Goes well as a quick lunch or as a side.

Definitely better to prepare using freshly cooked chickpeas, but canned ones do the job.

Linda L. @lindzi

Lebanese

This is a dish that we usually have for breakfast on Sundays in Lebanon. Goes well as a quick lunch or as a side.

Definitely better to prepare using freshly cooked chickpeas, but canned ones do the job.

This is a dish that we usually have for breakfast on Sundays in Lebanon. Goes well as a quick lunch or as a side.

Definitely better to prepare using freshly cooked chickpeas, but canned ones do the job.

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Ingredients

15 minutes

2 servings

1 canchickpeas
Water
Juice of half a lemon
2small garlic cloves
Salt
1/4 teaspooncumin powder
Extra virgin olive oil for topping

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Steps

15 minutes

1

Drain the chickpeas, rinse and cook them in clean water for like 10 minutes until the water starts boiling. This step is important as we need to make sure we’re using clean water and the chickpeas need to be warm - that’s how the dish is best enjoyed
2

Crush the garlic using pestle and mortar with some salt. The garlic has to be very well crushed until smooth and soft and not just chopped into small pieces

Smooth garlic paste with pestle and mortar
3

Add 3/4 of the chickpeas with a 1/4 ladle of the warm chickpea water to a bowl with the garlic, lemon juice and and cumin.
4

Using the pestle, roughly smash the chickpeas. Not too much. It’s fine if some of it stays whole as in the photo
5

That’s it! Now add a good drizzle of extra virgin olive oil with and decorate with the rest of the chickpea grains and a pinch of cumin. Serve with pita/flat bread and enjoy!

Tips

Smooth garlic paste with pestle and mortar

In Lebanon, you don’t always find a garlic press in our kitchen, but always always a pestle and mortar. We use this tool almost everyday because everything needs garlic in our cuisine 🧄 pestle and mortar help release the most garlicky flavour out of the garlic 😁

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