Quick Pickle: Garbanzos

This is barely a recipe, but I've never seen anybody do it outside my family. I see full on pickled garbanzo recipes on the internet, but not this cheatey quick pickle method, plus not with the cool story I have. One of my uncles shared this with my dad in the 60's when everybody was half drunk before lunch, as was the custom at the time.

As a garnish for a martini, instead of an olive or onion, he dropped in three garbanzos. Dad thought it was the coolest thing ever. 1 extra point for using a saber sword-shaped plastic garnish spear for the martini, and 6 points for getting three garbanzos AND an olive to stay on without splitting.

Uncle had made quick pickles with the garbanzos.

Recipe for Quick Pickle Garbanzos:
1. Open, drain and rinse a can of garbanzos (super extra bonus points for saving the garbanzo can juice and using as an egg white substitute. Totally not kidding, look it up, and wait, there's more! They've given it the majestic nomenclature "Aquafaba". 
2. Dump it in a half empty jar of dill pickles with the juice

This was my first experience at a very young age of experimenting with pickling. I still use this method for trying odd random things to see if they might be good candidates for a full on pickling treatment. Example protip: Jicama not such a great candidate, nor celeriac.

Quick-pickled garbanzos are really good in salads or as a snack with charcuterie or when doing a Korean-style spread of many small dishes of tasty weird things.

When I get all "fancy" I throw in a couple smashed garlic and a hot pepper (good time use for one of those old jalapenos you just let go and it dried out) and top off with strong vinegar and any handy fresh robust complimentary herbs. It gives the beans a little zip and personality, not super pickley. I don't think they need the full on treatment of a full boil-and-sterilize serious pickle job. Also, they're good for a long, long time in the fridge. Like a year as long as nothing funny appears.

Uh oh, I just thought of one of the few things I haven't tried pickling yet: Edamame. I threw some in and will post pic and result tomorrow morning.

Huh! Surprise, they're yummy. Sweet and tender and lightly pickly.