Grocery shopping was so much easier in Malaysia. English + larger selection of food. I bought a nice pile of spices (and whatnot) in Malaysia, so I thought I would make something warm and spicy for dinner.
A spin on Smitten Kitchen’s carrot soup + crisped chickpeas, but with satsumaimo (Japanese sweet potatoes) because I am not a huge fan of cooked carrots. I also threw in a little minced ginger and turmeric, which is such a stunning color. Well + Good NYC just had a great article on turmeric too.
(Currently, my new favorite website, obsessed with the refrigerator look books and 5 beauty obsessions and all their juice recipes, most of which give me supreme Vitamix envy.)
This was my first time roasting chickpeas. They are actually kind of hard to find in my area of Japan – along with quinoa, oats, cheese, cilantro, limes, chia seeds, apple cider vinegar, powdered sugar, Goldfish crackers, peanut butter chocolate chip granola bars, etc, etc, etc – but I scored a can at a foreign food store a while back. I will have to stock up on more chickpeas because I thought they tasted awesome! Crunchy, spicy, and way more nutritious than croutons on my soup.
I would have never thought to toast the chickpeas. I’m so doing this for dinner tonight and have it as a side item. Yummmy!
They are so tasty and EASY!
These chick peas should be easy to find anywhere in Japan as they are made by Kewpie, generally for about 100 yen a pop in a supermarket: http://www.kewpie.co.jp/products/product.php?j_cd=4901577337383 if you find the canned American ones difficult to buy – they’re quite common in Tokyo.
Or another brand is Inaba. Theirs come in a can: http://www.inaba-foods.jp/products/detail/37
They even have unsalted: http://www.inaba-foods.jp/products/detail/118
Good luck!
I will look for those! Thanks Ayako.
Canned and dried chickpeas are hard to find here, too. (Tokyo might as well be another planet compared to Hokuriku….) I’ve only seen them at the import/gourmet stores around Kanazawa and at the Kahoku Kaldi Coffee and some of the really large groceries (Aeon). I should get another bag–this soup looks really tasty, and I love satsumaimo.
Btw, keep your eyes peeled for annouimo – orange sweet potatoes! (安納芋). We got some in Kanazawa finally, so there might be some near you between now and February.
Also, if you are in the vinegar section, ringo-su (リンゴ酢) is apple-cider vinegar; powdered sugar is sometimes in small bags in the baking section. It’s called 粉砂糖 (kona-zatou) or パウダーシュガー. It can be a little harder to find if the baking section is really small.
Can’t wait to try the soup!
あけましておめでとう！
Hello and Happy New Year! I hope you had a super relaxing time in Kanazawa. I wanted to let you know that I just bought some apple cider vinegar. Whooo! THANK YOU. And I can’t wait to try out the annouimo.