At eight p.m. last night, I was finally getting around to making my lunch for the week: curried chickpea wraps and blueberry feta salad. Just for the record for my readers, usually lunch cooking and recipe writing takes place much earlier in the day on Sundays, allowing me ample time to try things out, taste, and refocus if anything should go too badly wrong. However, this was no ordinary weekend here in the PNW. This weekend was scorching, searing and miserably, miserably, hot. We spent two days languishing in front of two box fans and one oscillating fan and by we, I mean all the cats, the dog, and Clay and me. I finished one Scandinavian murder mystery and then promptly started reading another set in Alaska. I spent a lot of time thinking about Alaska and how cool it must be in the summer time. I am just not a fan of hot weather, ever.
So this week’s menu, by necessity, had to stay simple. The only thing heated up in this recipe are the chickpeas and these are heated only very, very briefly to coat the chickpeas with the spice mix. I opted for Neufchatel cheese rather than cream cheese for these, only because I was curious about the Neufchatel cheese. Really, it tastes like cream cheese. I did a bit of research to see exactly what the difference was and it turns out that Neufchatel cheese is made from milk, whereas cream cheese is a combination of milk and cream, so Neufchatel is a little lighter than cream cheese in fat content.
I also did drag myself to the farmer’s market this weekend. It was nearly a literal dragging, as I had made the questionable decision to go forward and run/walk in a 10K on Saturday morning and the temperatures were already in the 80s by the time I hit the half-way mark. Fortunately, the farmer’s market is in the same park as the run, but I was so hot and miserable I wandered past the artichokes, the gooseberries, and the raspberries with barely a notice. I did get some amazing heads of lettuce and a flat of berries, so there’s that at least.
Curried Chickpea Wrap
Serves 4
1 can chickpeas, rinsed
1 teaspoon curry powder
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon paprika
¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon lemon juice
Pinch salt
1 cucumber, sliced in strips
4 pieces of lettuce
4 tortillas
4 tablespoons cream cheese or Neufchatel cheese, room temperature
Combine the chickpeas, spices, salt and lemon in a small frying pan. Heat over low heat, stirring frequently, until chickpeas are well coated with the spice mix. Take off the heat.
Assemble wraps by spreading tortillas with 1 tablespoon each of the cheese. Divide the chickpeas and cucumbers evenly over the tortillas and then add a lettuce leaf to each. Roll the tortillas. These can be eaten immediately or wrapped up in foil or plastic wrap and stored in the fridge for a few days.
