TEST KITCHEN: ‘Marry Me Chickpeas,’ a vegetarian version of ‘Marry Me Chicken’

“That hit the spot!” Times Leader advertising director and taste tester Diane McGee said after sampling “Marry Me Chickpeas” from the Times Leader Test Kitchen.

“That was DEElicious,” page designer Ashley Bringmann said. “I loved it.”

“All the flavors blend well together,” said page designer Lyndsay Bartos.

“Ah marry you. Ah marry you. Ah marry you,” Mark said at home, laughing not only because we’re already married, but because he was trying to sound like Inman repeating “I marry you” to Ada with a Southern accent in the 2003 film “Cold Mountain.”

This flavorful dish, using chickpeas as the protein, is a vegetarian version of “Marry Me Chicken,” which has such a tasty sauce, it’s rumored to prompt proposals. Mark cooked that dish for me (and my mom) on Valentine’s Day 2023, and wrote about it in a March 1 food column that year.

When I spotted the recipe for the chickpea version online, it sounded like a culinary adventure I’d like to try. And because the blog author intended it to be vegan, she suggested using “cashew cream” instead of the conventional heavy cream from the dairy aisle that would be used in the chicken version.

So, for my first time ever, I soaked raw cashews in boiling water, then poured off the old water and ground up the cashews with new water, in a food processor. The resulting “cashew cream” was more liquid-y than I anticipated. But so far, so good.

The recipe also suggested adding “vegan Parmesan cheese.” I added regular Parmesan, which meant the dish I made isn’t vegan, but I’d still consider it vegetarian.

The recipe also mentioned red pepper flakes. I held off on that because they’re too strong for me. But I brought a jar to the office in case anyone wanted to add some.

So what did people think?

My first taste tester this week was my mom, and she loved it.

Then I gave some to Mark, who had a few suggestions. When he had a forkful with all the ingredients on it, he said, it was great. But it was hard to get all the ingredients onto one fork. “You could try cutting the sun-dried tomatoes into smaller pieces” to spread them around more, he suggested.

Also, he said, “I would have added more garlic.”

“The recipe calls for 5 cloves, and since I made a double batch, I used 10 cloves,” I said. “It was almost a whole head.”

“I would have doubled it,” he said. “You know I always add more garlic.”

Thinking the newsroom taste testers would need more flavor, I grated several extra ounces of my conventional Parmesan cheese over the whole dish, which I served on a bed of the high-protein grain, quinoa. I figured it was too late to add more garlic, but I carried a jar of red pepper flakes with me, calling it my secret weapon.

I think the only person to use the red pepper flakes was sportswriter Kevin Carroll, who admitted he “wasn’t crazy about the dish.”

“It’s not my favorite of your offerings, Mary Therese,” Kevin said. “But I’m eating it. And I’m glad you added the regular Parmesan. That helps it a lot.”

Columnist Bill O’Boyle tried a tiny sample and also was not a fan. “I appreciate your effort, but I would not order this in a restaurant,” he said, suggesting maybe a dish called “Divorce Me Ham with Mashed Potatoes and Corn” would be more his style.

But more people than not gave the Marry Me Chickpeas a thumbs up.

“I really liked it,” said reporter Margaret Roarty, who, when she heard about Mark’s comments, added, “I definitely could taste the garlic.”

“It’s not bad,” said Jamie Hartmann from the advertising department. “It reminds me of chicken Parmesan.”

As for executive editor Jake Higgins, he said my early description of the dish had led him to expect the chick peas would be ground into a kind of hummus, so he was surprised to find they were whole. Overall, he liked the dish but felt it was on the bland side. (I’d forgotten to offer him the red pepper flakes). And he thought it would go well over pasta.

Indeed, the cook who posted the recipe suggested serving it over rice, pasta or “even a baked sweet potato.”

Here is the recipe from noracooks.com.

Marry Me Chickpeas

1 tablespoon olive oil

5 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes, chopped

1/2 teaspoon oregano

1/2 teaspoon red chili flakes

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

(2) 15-ounce cans of chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1 cup vegetable broth

1 tablespoon tomato paste

1 cup vegan cream

2 cups baby spinach, sliced

4-5 fresh basil leaves chopped

optional: 1/2 cup grated vegan Parmesan cheese

In a large sauté pan over low to medium heat, warm the olive oil. Add the garlic and cook for 1-2 minutes, stirring frequently, until fragrant.

Stir in the sun-dried tomatoes, oregano, red chili flakes, salt and black pepper. Cook for 1 minute.

Now add the chickpeas, broth, tomato paste, cream and spinach and stir well. Bring to a gentle simmer over medium heat and cook for about 5 minutes, until warm and the spinach has wilted. Taste; add more salt, pepper or red pepper flakes as desired.

Remove from heat and stir in the fresh basil and grated Parmesan. Serve immediately with crusty bread for dipping or on top of cooked rice, pasta or even a baked sweet potato. Enjoy!

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