I am a fan of traditions, especially around the holidays. In a world where we no longer wait for anything, the idea of a once-a-year event that I look forward to is appealing. However, I prefer starting new traditions, rather than holding on to old ones passed down through generations.
A few years ago I started a new tradition of making an Irish Christmas pudding for the holidays, complete with each family member taking a turn stirring the batter and making a wish. Then when it’s time to serve it, the youngest person in the house lights the whisky-soaked pudding on fire. I am only marginally Irish by ancestry, but this new tradition has stuck and we look forward to it every year. On a trip to Ireland a few years ago, I found a large bag of dried fruit for Christmas pudding in a Tesco. I bought it and carried it all the way home like a baby.
My wife and I grew up in families where fish was eaten on Christmas Eve. I don’t recall anything as complex as the Feast of the Seven Fishes in my past, though it is an Italian-American thing and ostensibly part of my culture. However, my wife is a long-time vegetarian and aspiring vegan, and I have eaten so little seafood over the years that even the thought of it is unappealing. This created a vacuum, the space for a new idea to grow and take hold.
I came up with the idea to start a new holiday tradition, a vegan Christmas Eve Feast of the Seven Chickpeas. An internet search for it turns up nothing, so there is a good chance that it is the best original idea of my life. I wanted to do something different: create a whole holiday feast that would be completely vegan and use chickpeas in every recipe. I came up with this idea early in the year, and have been talking it up for months.
My wife and I celebrated our first vegan Feast of the Seven Chickpeas with great anticipation and excitement on Christmas Eve, 2024. Instead of making it all for one huge meal, we spaced it out over breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Here is the lineup:
The Chickpea Dishes
- Hippeas. Ok, obviously, it’s not something I made, but they are delicious. It is possible that Hippeas was the inspiration for this whole thing (they and my vegan wife), the packaging refers to the “humble but mighty chickpea”. It is quite a versatile ingredient. My bowl of Hippeas stayed with me throughout the day.
- Hummus. Loosely based on the recipe, as we make it so often I have stopped referencing it. We cook dry chickpeas frequently for dinners, soups, and curries. Once they are done I remove what I need for dinner from the pot, then I add baking soda and keep cooking the remainder. When they are falling apart they are the right consistency for hummus. A bunch of mushy chickpeas, tahini, garlic, cumin, paprika, lemon juice, olive oil, and salt all go in the food processor and are processed until smooth. Sure I could have bought it, but I prefer my own.
- Vegan Spanish Tortilla. In Spain a few years ago, we enjoyed the tortillas that were often served for breakfast. A Spanish tortilla is a sort of omelet filled with cooked potatoes and onions. We found a vegan version that uses batter made from chickpea flour instead of eggs. Cooked in a hot iron skillet with lots of olive oil for breakfast, it was amazing. We will make this often in the future, substituting different vegetables for the potatoes, the chickpea batter makes a great egg substitute for a breakfast tortilla or frittata.
- Pasta e Ceci. A friend of my wife’s southern Italian Pasta e Fagioli. We added a can of tomatoes to this recipe. This was our big lunchtime meal. The combination of rosemary and tomato in this dish was unusual and surprisingly good.
- Farinata/Socca. What you call it depends on where you are located. In Nice it is socca, in Genoa it is farinata. But it is essentially the same thing, a flatbread made from chickpea flour, water, olive oil, and salt which I cooked in a hot iron skillet. We ate it by itself and with hummus as an appetizer before dinner.
- Tuscan Chickpea Soup. After a full day of eating it was nice to have soup for dinner. We both liked this recipe, although, with the hot pepper flakes adding spice and coconut milk, it tasted more like something Thai rather than Tuscan.
- Vegan Chocolate Hazelnut Torte. For dessert, we made a vegan cake using whipped aquafaba instead of eggs. It had the consistency of a nutella-flavored brownie and we loved it.
Looking back on the day, it was a rare thing in life, an event that lived up to the hype. We enjoyed every aspect of the feast, including eating well without the fatigue, guilt, and general discomfort that comes with eating a typical holiday meal. If you are looking for a healthier alternative this holiday menu is for you!
We will revisit this idea every Christmas Eve, the large vegan feast that is. Rumor has it there are rumblings and preliminary plans for a 2025 “Feast of the Lentil”. We will see!