When I was a little girl, I won this contest and got to visit the most magical place on earth – Willy Wonka’s Chickpea Factory (located a bit behind and to the left of the chocolate factory which is SO overrated!). Willy Wonka himself was a bit weird. He only hung out with the factory workers – the garbanzos – who sang this irritating song – “chickpeas, chickpeas, chickpeas are grand, we like to eat them whenever we can.” Whatever. So we toured the whole factory and saw chickpeas morph into all kinds of things like hummus, spreads, soups, and so much more!! In the soup room, I saw this recipe lying on the ground and I couldn’t resist. Chickpeas, carrots, crushed red peppers flakes, tomato, garlic all pureed together? Even as a seven year old, I knew I had found something special. I slipped it in my pocket and saved it all these years. Willy caught me and kicked me out, which I thought was a little extreme. But nothing compared to what happened to Veruca Spice – she ate a chickpea and turned into a giant vat of garlic hummus (now available at Trader Joe’s).

Ingredients (in no particular order): chickpeas, tomato puree, crushed red pepper flakes, celery, carrots, garlic, onions, olive oil, salt, pepper

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