2. Saffron is not as commonly found in cupboards as you might think. :) Although I suppose I really should invest in some.

What is the huge time-intensive process you’re trying to eliminate with your revisions? I cooked the garbanzo beans overnight in my crockpot, which is no effort and no different than cooking beans, which you’re always raving about. After that, it took me 20-30 minutes to throw the original recipe together–including washing all the dishes to do it because my kitchen was a mess.

I must say after trying this… Please don’t use any of Trent’s revisions (except maybe leaving out the saffron)! No powdered garlic (see about half the posts above for the reason); no bread crumbs instead of real bread (it takes about two minutes to fry the bread since the pan/oil is already hot and about a minute to smash it (I don’t have a mortal and pestle… I used my hands.) and the garlic/bread paste makes this have a FANTASTIC texture that would be lost with crumbs); and no canned beans (complete waste of money, as I think your site points out in many places, when you can cook them in a crockpot with basically no effort).

I made a half-batch of the original recipe and served it over rice for a little more substance and to make the beans a high-quality protein. Excluding the saffron and including rice, I spent $2.23 on all the ingredients. This includes carefully calculated “fractional” items already on hand, including spices (I buy bulk spices super cheap a few tablespoons at a time, so this calculation is a fairly easy). I also used frozen spinach, which is cheaper, more convenient, and more healthy unless you’re getting fresh, locally grown spinach. I made five generous servings, which brings the cost to 44 cents a serving. Why destroy a wonderful recipe that takes fewer than 30 minutes to cook and only costs 44 cents?

“You can save time by buying fresh garlic in bulk and then crush it all in one go with a garlic crusher. Place the crushed garlic in a jar and cover with oil. The garlic will last for months in the fridge and you have a beautiful garlic infused oil to use in your cooking. ”

This is a pretty good way to court a bad case of botulism. The anaerobic enviroment of the oil combined with the inevitable botulism spore on a ground-harvested garlic clove is like the perfect envronment for the spores to grow and produce botulinum toxin. The most recent recommendations from the USDA is to avoid homemade “garlic in olive oil” preparations. If they have been pressure canned to the appropriate degree of heat and length of exposure to heat that *may* be a different matter.

You might get away with it if it’s used pretty quickly, but I’d “just say no” to this one.

That looks like too much oil, but would work. Just heat it med-high until it shimmers–don’t boil it!!

Smash the whole clove and the peel pretty much falls off. You can do this to a whole bulb, storing the individual cloves covered in oil in the fridge.

You can also do a “quick soak” with most beans, including garbanzos – bring the beans and water to a boil, then turn off the heat and let them sit in the water for about an hour. Proceed to cook as instructed.

Frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed dry, should work as well as fresh with very little nutritional value lost.

I agree with Comment #36 – the original recipe isn’t all that expensive, so just stick with the more authentic flavors. Try leaving out the saffron, but other than that, stick with what works!

Ok, I’m pretty passionate about garlic — sometimes go through 4 or 5 bulbs in a week and there’s only me and the boy. While you can manage to crush a garlic clove with the side of a chef’s knife – or any other hard, flat surface – I’d suggest a garlic press if you really enjoy fresh garlic. With a really good press, you don’t even have to peel the clove – just trim off the hard bottem (where it was connected to the bulb) with a paring knife. Alternately, you can find jars of whole, minced or crushed garlic in many stores. Let the garlic rest about 5 to 10 minutes – supposedly this allows the beneficial compounds to form – but I find it allows the flavor to mellow just a bit.

In fact, I didn’t notice where the garlic went with the revised recipe — so I assume you tossed the powdered garlic in the trash — a perfect thing to do with it!