Smashed Beets and Chickpeas Crostini, a delicious and colorful snack for hot days

With the hot temperatures we are having around here, and the humidity being at almost 100% most of the time, I often don’t feel too hungry, and/or also too lazy to prepare a big meal for my family.

Since I still had a can of chickpeas in my pantry, and a few fresh beets in the fridge, I decided to prepare Beet and Chickpeas Crostini for our lunch.

The preparation is pretty straightforward and easy. The only thing that consumes a bit of time is boiling the beets, but I remember that back in Europe, already boiled beets were available in supermarkets. So by buying these, that step could even be skipped, making the dish even faster to prepare. But let’s see what else I used:

Ingredients:

• 4 medium sized red beets*
• 1 can of boiled chickpeas (400 g net weight)
• 3-4 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 8 tablespoons vinegar**
• 5 tablespoons sweet soy sauce (Kecap Manis)**
• ** (Or about 3/4 cup balsamic vinegar)
• 4 slices of toast bread (or any other thin sliced white bread)
• 3 tablespoons virgin olive oil

Preparation:

Wash the beets and steam them for 35 to 40 minutes, until they are tender. Don’t peel them before steaming them. That way, they won’t lose much of their red colored liquid.

* If you buy already boiled beets, you can skip this step, and save a lot of time

Meanwhile, clean the skin off the chickpeas. I always clean them by hand, by rubbing each of them between my fingers, but it’s a somewhat annoying task. If anybody has a few tips on how to make it easier, go ahead, I’m all ears.

Heat the vegetable oil in a frying pan or wok, and fry the chickpeas for about 10 minutes, seasoning them with rosemary, curry powder, paprika powder, salt and pepper.

** Again, I don’t have any good balsamic vinegar available here, so I mix my own substitute with white vinegar and sweet soy sauce. If you have good balsamic vinegar available, please use that one.

Mix the vinegar and sweet soy sauce in a small pan and boil until the liquid has reduced.

Next, toast the bread slices until they are crispy on the outside to turn them into Crostini. Since I don’t have a toaster, I usually use my Crêpes pan for that, and it works amazingly well. (In Italy, we heated our house with a wood stove, its surface was an amazing toaster as well)

When the beets have finished steaming, let them cool down a bit so that they are cold enough to handle them. Peel them, and smash them into pieces with a potato smasher. Be careful as beet juice leaves terrible stains.

Distribute the beets on the Crostini, add the chickpeas on top, drizzle with the vinegar reduction and the virgin olive oil.

Serve while still warm and enjoy.

Since my husband was a bit more hungry, I added a scrambled egg to his portion.

My family liked this colorful and zesty snack very much. The slight sweetness of the beets paired perfectly with the vinegar reduction and the spices added.

How about you? What are your favorite meals or snacks on hot days?

I’m very curious to read about them in the comments.

By the way, slicing the Crostini diagonally in half, they could also make a nice appetizer.