Why “Chickpea Melts” Are 100x Better than Tuna Melts
I’m a notoriously bad meal planner. Currently scribbled on the little white board on my fridge is the dinner plan from three weeks ago. I go through spurts of feeling energized and organized (hence why I even have a whiteboard to begin with), but on most days I’m figuring out tonight’s dinner a couple of hours before. I (mostly) get away with this procrastination by a well-stocked pantry and some back-pocket recipes.
Perhaps the dinner I turn to most is cheesy chickpea melts. Chickpeas, canned tomatoes, and cheese are ingredients I always have on hand. Crusty bread is something universally loved by everyone in my family. I don’t need to plan for cheesy chickpea melts — they’re there for me to make whenever I’m feeling uninspired, anti-chicken, short on time, lazy, or all of the above.
Get the recipe: Cheesy Chickpea Melts
What Makes Chickpea Melts So Good
Another thing to know about me is that I prefer almost everything in sandwich form. While I love a good one-skillet bean dinner — pizza beans! BBQ pizza beans! beans alla vodka!(!!) — when given the option of a cheesy melt (yes, a melt counts as a sandwich!), I’ll always take the sourdough route.
Chickpea melts are delicious if you follow the recipe exactly as it’s written, but it’s also gloriously flexible. You can use harissa paste or tomato paste, swap in cannellini or butter beans, throw in kale or spinach, and choose any type of melty cheese your heart desires. You could even pile the beans onto English muffins!
From start to finish, I’m usually able to get the melts on the dinner table in less than 30 minutes. (Confession: I skip rubbing garlic onto the bread 90% of the time!). The saucy chickpeas come together in one pan, and the toasts are assembled on an aluminum foil-lined baking sheet for easier cleanup. The stakes are low, but the reward is high.
Get the recipe: Cheesy Chickpea Melts
Further Reading
Why People Are Ditching Their Seltzer After a Disturbing Study
The One Cookware Brand That Gordon Ramsay Can’t Stop Talking About
Reese’s Just Launched a Limited-Edition Peanut Butter Cup, and It Tastes 4x Better than the Original
