Pasta-Chickpea Salad, Pre and Post-Fast Meal

One of the popular suggestions for pre-fast meals is to eat complex carbohydrates, which take longer to digest. The experts consider that a good idea before fasting. So, on Friday I decided to make a Pasta-Chickpea Salad. Of course I had to make sure I had enough time to soak and cook the chickpeas, which I did. You can "cheat" by getting a can of them.

Cooking Chickpeas
First I leave the chickpeas in a covered pot full of boiling water for a couple of hours. Then I pour out the water, add new boiling water and simmer on the stove until chewable. Leave covered for another hour or so.

Pasta-Chickpea Salad Ingredients

• cooked pasta, drained
• cooked or from a can chickpeas, drained
• cut tomatoes, large diced
• diced onion
• olive oil, coarse salt and coarse pepper
• optional other salad vegetables and leaves and/or grated cheese

Mix all of the ingredients together. Yes, it's that simple. It's a simple "one-pot" summer meal. Which additional ingredients do you add? I'd love to hear.

PS for the post fast, fast-breaking breakfast meal, I heated up the salad, since my husband prefers warm pasta.

Yom Kippur: Pre and Post-Fast Menu a Success, B"H!

Yesterday before Yom Kippur I posted about my meal plans for before and after the twenty-five 25 hour Yom Kippur fast. Planning ahead is extremely important, because it's forbidden to cook or day any food preparation on Yom Kippur. It's an otherworldly holiday when we are supposed to pray to Gd begging that He forgive us and grant us life in the new year.

Simply described, I cooked double, so that there would be enough to eat before and after the fast. I made a fairly traditional chicken meal.

• chicken soup with (brown) rice
• re-cooked the chicken with vegetables
• kasha and mushrooms
• baked vegetables

Chicken Soup

• Boil cleaned chicken in water about half an hour a few hours (or day) before you plan on serving the soup.
• remove chicken from soup
• Cool liquid in fridge, best in different container.
• An hour or more before serving, skim off any fat or whatever from top of cool soup.
• Add (checked) rice and vegetables-onion, carrot and others to soup pot; add soup liquid and cook until seems ready, about 40 minutes. Season with a bit of salt and pepper just before turning off heat. (Do not serve immediately.)

Chicken with Veggies

• Place cooked chicken and cut vegetables in a pot, cover. 
• I used onion, zucchini, sweet potato and carrots.
• Add a bit of oil.
• Cook on low flame until vegetables are soft.
• Serve half before the fast and half after.

Kasha and Mushrooms

• Saute onions and mushrooms in pot. 
• Add checked kasha/buckwheat.
• Add water* and cover.
• Turn off heat when there is almost no water. And leave covered for 20 minutes.

Baked Vegetables

• I just layer a variety of vegetables, such as onion, squash, pumpkin, sweet potatoes and more. 
• Add a bit of oil on top
• And bake until it looks ready.

I also made a big salad, which was finished after the Yom Kippur fast. Yes, cooking was easy, and heating it up was easy too. The soup and chicken were heated on the stove, and the kasha and vegetables were in the oven. 

*The ratio of water to buckwheat is 1 cup buckwheat, to 1.5 cups of water. You can try a 1 to 2 cup ratio, but the buckwheat may be more mushy, or have a longer cooking time. How to Cook Buckwheat (Kasha)