Call it what you will, its a well known fact that if you put a bunch of little receptacles, the people will eat it. This is a semi-homemade spread of crispy roasted and spiced garbanzo beans and marinated cheese and olives with a few of my favorites from the olive bar at Whole Foods.
By the way, I was just wondering how you say “banana” in Italian, so I looked it up and the answer is “banana.” I’m not drunk. Yet.
Moving on, I bought the grilled artichoke hearts and the peppadew peppers (the red caps) at the olive bar. I’ve been reading a bit about peppadew peppers and they’re basically the Kleenex of peppers, that is to say, peppadew is actually the brand name of the company that makes the peppers. Apparently, they aren’t always easy to find as evidenced by this Bon Appetit article where they apologize for assuming everyone has access to them for a macaroni and cheese recipe.
I’m not going to share the recipe for the garbanzo beans or the cheese because I liked the idea of them better than the actual execution. You get the idea, roast garbanzo beans are a nice, healthier snack than just putting out chips or crackers. If you dry them, cover them in the spices of your choice, and bake them until they’re nice and crispy they can be an addictive bar snack. But mine didn’t turn out amazing. If I decide on a recipe that I love, I’ll share later. The cheese is an overwrought idea. Chopped up manchego, already cut into cubes so that everyone isn’t hacking away at it, is a better option than marinating it which then makes it hard to keep if there are leftovers.
For the olives, I did think this was a good and pretty fun idea and a way to save a few bucks so I’ll go ahead and write down what I did:
this would be positively perfect with a gin and tonic
or a margarita, whatever
a very special thank you to Karli Evans for her amazing skills in doing these dishes justice in these photos. Be sure to browse her website and follow her on Instagram and prepare to be impressed.
