Burnt chickpeas

I managed to burn my dinner last night. I often have chickpea salad for my evening meal, made with chopped tomato and onion, boiled chickpeas and some salad dressing...nice and filling, healthy and quick to prepare. I usually cook about 1lb of chickpeas at a time, divide them into portions and freeze them.

So, last night while they were simmering away I did a little cross stitching on the name picture I´m working on for my soon-to-arrive grandson. I lost track of time until there was a strong smell of burning coming from the kitchen. The chickpeas had not only boiled dry but were thoroughly scorched.

I was really cross with myself as a lot of them were black on one side where they had been in contact with the saucepan. Before throwing them out I tasted one out of curiosity and surprisingly enough it didn´t taste too bad, a sort of BBQ flavour... so I put a spoonful of burnt chickpeas in with the good ones in my salad and it was fine. I have now frozen the burnt ones separately to add a few at a time to other dishes. Waste not want not!

It took a few hours of open windows to get rid of the smell of burning, and my poor saucepan is a sorry sight, it´s one of my favourites too. At the moment it is soaking in bicarb.