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| Simple, easy, elegant: so happy it bears my name. |
Way back in 2014 I lived in my sorority house under the regime of Mom Gough, our notoriously mean house mom who once famously threatened to lock us out of the house if we didn’t behave better. She had a pretty hard and fast stance that all dietary restrictions are stupid and that everyone can survive on grilled bone-in chicken and boiled potatoes, so needless to say vegetarian options were sparse in our kitchen. I struggled to put meals together that had enough protein to keep me healthy using just the ingredients in our sad salad bar. And subsequently, the Alye Miller Protein Special was born.
The traditional iteration of the AMPS is simple: raw chickpeas, olive oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper. That formed the basis of dozens of variations depending on what was available on the salad bar: I would add tomatoes, cucumbers, olives, feta cheese, mushrooms, or other beans. Sometimes I made a Southwest Protein Special if we had black beans, corn, cheddar cheese, and salsa. But chickpeas have always reigned supreme.
I still sometimes find myself stumped for a meal to throw together with a passable amount of protein, especially between grocery runs. So here’s the recipe for a simple (but still delicious) Alye Miller Protein Special.
(Makes 2 servings)
• 2/3 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• One cup cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
• Half of a large cucumber, chopped
• Olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper, and oregano to taste
Now that I have my own kitchen, I roast the garbanzo beans to give them a nice texture before mixing everything together and drizzling on the oil and vinegar.
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| Wash and chop the veggies while the chickpeas roast |
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| Being an adult means cooking your canned beans before eating them |
This recipe takes no more than 11 minutes to make and costs about $1.25 per serving. Bonus: it makes for a great packed lunch!