Reverse Leftovers.

Tonight was one of those thankfully-rare occurrences where I  had a short time to turn out something better-than-decent without the help of our neighborhood grocery store.  The Boyfriend is in the last few weeks of his semester, and in need of a break from AutoCAD, said he'd be home in 30 minutes...30 minutes after I'd finished licking clean the tupperware from yesterday's leftovers.  Why on earth would this be a problem, you ask?  Since we live a few blocks from the co-op (grocery store), I hardly ever make the big, cart-busting hauls my mom did when I was growing up, and the fact that it's 10 degrees outside really, really disincentivized me to leave the building.

Who, me? Lazy?  Probs.  My dad, perhaps more charitably than he should when I relate these kinds of adventures, says I'm just practicing a classic principal of Italian cooking called "never throw anything out."  

On examination, the two magic bags of holding cupboard and refrigerator produced a tall can of garbanzo beans, lots of garlic, an extremely large carrot, a smitch of green goddess dressing, a romaine heart, and flour tortillas left over from last night's black bean wraps.  Trying not to be reminded that getting the same kind of thing two nights in a row feels a bit lame, here's what I came up with:

In a saute pan over medium heat, heat three or four glugs of olive oil and 4 to 5 cloves of garlic, minced.  Once the pan smells delicious, and before the garlic has a chance to burn, toss in a substantial amount of ground black pepper, and a couple pinches of salt, plus the drained 28 oz. can of chickpeas.  Give it a good stir, and let it cook for a bit until the chickpeas are soft and will mash into a chunky paste, rather than the crumble you'd get if you mashed them straight out of the can.

While that's going on, chop the lettuce as you would for any salad, and shred the carrot using the big holes on your box grater.  Once the garbanzos are the right consistency, toss them in a bowl with the carrot shreds and go to town with the potato masher, leaving a mix of smashed and partly-whole beans.  Spoon this into your wraps, along with the chopped lettuce that you've hopefully tossed with the goddess dressing, and there you go.  Easier than Ikea.

The Boyfriend pronounced his approval, and I hope that they made him just a little bit less stressed out and comforted on the inside.  He needs it this time of year.