Chickpea Piccata from Isa Chandra

tuuuurtle!  totally unrelated to this post, but really cute, no?

I'm not one to be excited about vegan dishes, usually.  We have several vegan restaurants in Memphis and I haven't tried any of them.  My husband and I both eat anything, so usually a (to me) more realistic option for us is somewhere that, you know, serves dairy and meat. 

However.  I also really love vegetables and could probably become vegetarian if the need arose.  I usually order meals that aren't very meat-centric, and we eat meat-free salads all week long (which helps us balance out our typical gluttonous weekends of eating out and my baking habits).  So, when I saw Appetite for Reduction in my suggested reads on my Amazon homepage, I was somewhat dubious but intrigued because, wow, if you take one look at the reviews it's pretty hard not to see that this is a promising book.  I bought it last year sometime, and of course am just now getting around to using it.

But poor me!  I could have been enjoying these recipes for an entire year.  Dang, people, these are good recipes.  Not only are they full of flavor, you have barely anything to feel guilty about - approximately 200 to 400 calories per serving and you're done.  Seriously, go try some of her recipes here.  And then buy her book.

And if you try just one recipe, try her Chickpea Piccata recipe.  I made it over the weekend and brought it to work for my lunches.  I added some chicken (not vegan, remember?), and ate it over arugula.  Oh. My. Goodness.  Seriously.  Somehow the flavors combine and give you rainbows in your mouth.  I read a lot of food blogs and become irritated when people get excited about a recipe online ("Try this!  OMG!") because then I have to wait hours until I can get home and try it myself, but at the risk of being annoying, I'll say it again - make this recipe NOW.  So good, so fast, so easy.  You could serve it over potatoes (or her Caulipots which I still have yet to try), or just eat it with arugula like I did.  Seriously.  Go now.  Then when you eat this for lunch (like I did today), you'll have extra calories that you can use up on the lemon meringue pie you baked over the weekend and will eat a slice of (like I will tonight).