Girl Dinner Chickpeas

Okay, we cannot ignore the current #GirlDinner trend. It’s everywhere in the news this week, and we must chime in, just this once. 

TikToker Olivia Maher started the thing in May when she posted this video defending a dinner of bread, cheese, grapes, and wine. “I call this ‘girl dinner,’ or ‘Medieval peasant,’” she quipped, in response to another TikToker who claimed bread and cheese to be a meal that only peasants in Medieval times would be forced to eat, but one that she actually loved. Since then, #girldinner has blown up, and with it, photos and videos of all manner of oddly thrown-together dinners.

Like anything remotely debatable, Girl Dinner has become controversial. People are complaining that it encourages disordered eating. Yes, for the women sharing a glass of Diet Coke as dinner, that’s questionable. But Girl Dinner doesn’t equate with deprivation.

It’s not about sparse eating, but, rather, about taking bits of this and pieces of that – things that are already in your fridge or pantry – and assembling them incongruously as a sort of grown-up Happy Meal. A no-cooking, no-effort-required dinner that caters to one person, no thought given to what a husband or kids or anyone else will eat. I’ve been known to stand at the kitchen counter eating a Baby Bel cheese with Mary’s Gone Crackers cracked pepper crackers, a handful of almonds, a couple pineapple cubes, and leftover roasted broccoli, asparagus, whatever, dipped in tahini and lemon juice. Or I’ll sit down with a cold link of chicken sausage and some really yummy Dijon mustard, with a side of avocado. These are my Happy Meals, but these are not dinners I could feed to anyone else. And that’s the beauty of them.

Using ingredients you're bound to have in your kitchen, these chickpeas are super simple and satisfying.

Girl Dinner Chickpeas
You’re bound to have these ingredients in your pantry, and we think these super simple but super yummy chickpeas count as a respectable Girl Dinner.

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 15-ounce can chickpeas, drained and rinsed, patted dry with paper towels
1 teaspoon dried oregano
½ teaspoon kosher salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
Pinch red pepper flakes
1 tablespoon crumbled feta

Warm the olive oil over medium-low heat in a small saucepan. Add the chickpeas and stir in the oregano, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes. Cook for about 3 minutes, until the chickpeas are just warm. Pour the chickpeas into a bowl and stir in the feta.