Monday, March 7, 2011

Chickpea Cannelloni ~ Recipe

Chickpea Cannelloni

When daddy is away the rest of us go vegetarian *grin*.
Hubby is completely meat crazy and wants it pretty much for breakfast, lunch and dinner and by the time he leaves to go back to work the kids and I are totally ready for a meat moratorium :)

We love chickpeas so I thought it would be fun to make cannelloni with a vegetable and chickpea filling and for a first try I'm very pleased with how it turned out.

Veggie Medley

I started with:

2 large carrots
1 stalk of celery

5 cloves of garlic
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 a sweet onion (approx. 1/2 cup)

I grated the celery and carrot and then pureed all of it in my blender until it was completely smooth.

Chickpea Cannelloni

Next I added:

1 egg
1 cup of ricotta cheese
1 cup cooked spinach
2 cups of chickpeas
2 big bunches of fresh basil & parsley (approx. 3/4 cup each)
Salt and pepper to taste


Add all of the above ingredients into your blender or food processor and blend until smooth. I like to puree it like this so that the kids don't know exactly what vegetables I've put in because each of them has specific likes and dislikes and if they see something they don't like they want to pick it out. This way it just tastes good *grin*. If you like more texture then you can definitely blend it less and personally if it was just for me I wouldn't blend in the spinach. It all depends on who your food critics are! LOL

Note: I used dried chickpeas. If you want to try making your own place your 1 1/4 cups of dried chickpeas in a large glass bowl with 4 cups of water and let sit overnight until morning. When you wake up transfer your beans and water to a cooking pot and make sure you have at least twice to three times as much water as your beans. Bring to a raging boil and boil uncovered on high for 10 minutes. After that reduce the heat and simmer for 1-2 hours until tender. I find it usually takes closer to the 2 hours for mine to be fully cooked. You can also do a double or triple batch of beans all at one time and through the rest of it in the freezer portioned out for future meals to save on some cooking time next time!

chickpea cannelloni

With your chickpeas and vegetables all mixed together add 1 cup of shredded Pecorino Romano cheese or another one of your favorite cheeses and 1/2 a cup of brown bread crumbs, stir together and you're ready to start filling your cannelloni noodles :)

Tomato sauce

Oven ready cannelloni noodles have to be the easiest type to work with because you can fill them in their rigid uncooked form but you have to have enough liquid in the pot when you cook them for them to soften properly.

So to create my tomato cooking sauce I used two tins of regular tomato sauce plus two tinfuls of water to double the volume and then added the following herbs to create an italian flavor :)

1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1 tablespoon onion powder

In a large 10 x 13 greased baking dish pour in enough of your tomato sauce to thoroughly cover the base of the pan.

Chickpea Cannelloni

I have to tell you I came across the EASIEST way to fill your cannelloni noodle!! Put all of your filling into a large freezer bag, snip off one of the bottom corners and you have created the perfect piping bag for filling your noodles :)

If you place the tip of the bag right inside the noodle while you're filling it, the pressure as it gets nearer the top will actually push all of the filling down towards the bottom creating an even fill. Just keep the base of the noodle against the palm of your hand to prevent it from blowing out the bottom. Don't ask me how I know that *grin*.

Chickpea Cannelloni

Place each filled noodle into your tomato sauce leaving a little bit of space in between each for expansion...

Chickpea Cannelloni

and once all of your noodles are filled and in the pan, top with the remaining tomato sauce and a sprinkle more of cheese :)

Chickpea Cannelloni

Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit and serve up with some garlic bread and salad :) So yummy and the kids had second helpings so I'm calling this a smashing good success! LOL

Hugs,
Rosina


PS. Looking for more yummy recipes?? Check out this week's Hearth and Soul blog hop :)

8 comments:

Lo said...

mmmmmm sounds lovely Rosy
Have you tried Potato layer bake

Peal and slice potatos thinly then layer in a dish with what ever you like I do ......A layer of pots then a layer of leeks layer of pots layer of peas end up with a layer of pots then bake in the oven till pots are done test with a knife just before it is done put some grated cheese on and melt some times i put a layer of our favourite potato chips with the cheese as it give a bit of a crunch
ENJOY
Lo xxxx

TwigandToadstool said...

This looks and sounds so delish! Shall be trying it for sure!
Wanted to let you know I linked to you in my last post ~ Thank you for inspiring me!
much love
Shanti

Debbie said...

Oh my goodness...this sounds amazing. I will be making this For. Sure. I agree with Shanti - you are so inspiring. xo

Katie said...

This recipe sounds delicious, as a side dish ;-) I'm like your husband, a total carnivore, so are my kids. My daughter ever made up a meat song when she was about 3!

house full of jays said...

Another mouth watering meal, Rosina! And I love these veggie recipes!! We are going more and more meat-free and loving it!

Candace said...

I absolutely love the taste of meat! However, we have been trying to eat more meatless meals lately and this would be a really nice change. How very creative of you to make a veggie cannelloni recipe! I love this idea so much! Thank you for sharing your recipe!

Christy said...

We are a meat eating family but especially during Lent I love to have some veggie meals in my pocket - I know my kids would love this and me too! Thanks for sharing this with us at the Hearth and Soul Hop!

Cheryl said...

I've bookmarked this recipe. It looks lovely. I do like to have a few meat free days in the week. If I don't point it out, then the family never seem to notice! :)