Chickpea Nutloaf With Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

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   Do ahead preliminary steps:

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   1) Soak chickpeas overnight in filtered water - drain & rinse. Cook 1 1/2 hours in 2 to 3 cups of filtered water with 1 or 2 bay leaves on medium heat until water is nearly evaporated. Taste for tenderness. If done, cool & store in refrigerator in its broth until ready to use.

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   2) Spread raw pepitas on a cookie sheet with a lip & roast in the oven at 375 degrees for 10 min. When cool, grind them in a food processor to a fine grind. Store in a glass jar or ziploc baggie in the refrigerator until ready to use.

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   3) Soak quinoa overnight - drain & rinse 3 times. Set in pan on stove-top with 2 cups of water & cook about 15 min. Drain & leave in colander. Bring a small amount of water to a boil in the same pan & place the colander over the pan so that the bottom of the colander is not touching the water. Cover the colander with a dish towel & place pan lid over dish towel. Steam on low flame about 10 min. more. Remove pan from flame, cool & store in refrigerator until ready for use.

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   When ready, drain broth from chickpeas. Save broth for another dish. Grind in food processor until a fairly fine grind is achieved. It will be dry. Place in large mixing bowl. Grind sun-dried tomatoes, garlic & fresh sweet basil in food processor with whatever oil was in the tomatoes until thoroughly ground. Add to mixing bowl. Coarsely cut zucchini, carrot, celery, onion, & red bell pepper. Place in food processor pulse until you have fairly tiny pieces of veggies but not pulp-like. Add to mixing bowl. Add nuts, ground pepitas, chopped olives, spices, both cheeses & 2 eggs. Using your hands, thoroughly mix all ingredients together as if making meat loaf. Mixture will be wet. Dry is better than wet. Coat each loaf pan with olive oil & fill each with mixture. Bake covered with tinfoil at 375 degrees for about 1 hr. Freeze additional nutloafs uncooked. Baking frozen takes longer about 1 1/2 hrs.

* Per serving · 4 servings · Values may vary.