International year of garavance

Illustration by Serene Lusano

Hold on to your 100 percent-cotton-and-never-angora socks, plant people: Chickpeas have another name—other than garbanzos. The legume is also called garavance, and—still holding on?—this other other name has another name, too: caravance. It’s befitting, since it’s such a versatile pulse. Even its byproduct, aquafaba, has given the vegan community greater culinary range and is the key to making great plant-based meringue. Plus, where would any of us in the world be without hummus? Speaking of the world, the United Nations declared 2016 as the International Year of the Pulses. Let’s commemorate this solemn, delicious designation with the How Sweet It Is recipe for spiced roasted chickpeas: Spray 2 cups of garbanzos with olive oil mist, and sprinkle with a mixture of black pepper, chili powder, salt, smoked paprika, garlic powder (a quarter teaspoon of each) and a dash of cayenne, and bake at 425 degrees for 30 minutes for a spicy, crunchy garavance celebration.