This recipe for chickpeas required silphium, which, let’s face it, what-ium? I added some shallots and garlic (both of which were popular with Romans) instead of the silphium and replaced the grape syrup in the original recipe with good old passum.

4 shallots, cut into 6 pieces (Romans preferred shallots to onions)

2 cloves of garlic, crushed and chopped

1 leek

1 Tsp garum (recipe here)

1 Tbsp passum (recipe here)

1 cup dried chickpeas, washed and soaked overnight (or two cans of chickpeas, washed under water until they don’t foam anymore)

4 Tbsp olive oil

1 Tbsp fresh coriander, chopped

Optional: 1 Tsp baking soda

½ Tsp salt (The Romans would have just added more garum. But there is only so much fish sauce a woman in the 21^st century can take.)

Cover chickpeas in water and boil on medium heat until tender. (About 10 minutes for canned chickpeas, and 1.5 hours for dried). Remove foam as chickpeas cook.

Tip: if you add one teaspoon of baking soda to dried chickpeas, it will help them cook quicker and become more tender. But it’s not very Roman.

Meanwhile, fry your shallots, leek and garlic in 2 Tbsp of olive oil, until everything is translucent and has golden edges. Drain cooked chickpeas. Add to the leek mixture and turn pan on low heat. Add garum, passum, and the rest of olive oil and stir until everything is well incorporated, about 5 minutes. Add chopped coriander and serve.