Hello, friends. Perhaps I can entice you with a delectable summer salad …
My palette is changing, y’all. Recently I added pickles to a hot dog. PICKLES. And I hate pickles. Yesterday I started salivating over a mushroom pizza. MUSHROOM! Ick! And in the same vein I decided to try a salad with chickpeas in it. Chickpeas, usually relegated to live only smashed to smithereens in my hummus, now have become a pleasant addition to my new favorite salad.
I was inspired by this recipe, but like usual I changed it so it’s practically unrecognizable. Because as much as I am open to pickles and mushrooms and chickpeas, I’m still not opening my gullet for raw olives.
The verdict? My revised recipe is a keeper. It reminds me of the Thai crunch salad from CPK, but with slightly less crunch. It’s definitely a mouthful of robust, clean flavors that make you feel like you did a very good thing, as Martha would say.
Here’s what you need:
- 1 can chickpeas (aka garbanzo beans)
- 1 tomato
- 1 cucumber
- 1/2 onion
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Red wine vinegar
- Salt
- Pepper
- Garlic (grated fresh or from a spice bottle, depending on how lazy you are)
- 3 large handfuls spring mix salad (spinach leaves!)
- 1 cup diced chicken
- Feta cheese
Here’s what you do:
Chop the tomato, cucumber and onion into small bits. Drain and rinse the chickpeas. Combine in large bowl with a sprinkling of the olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt, pepper and garlic (add amount to your liking; remember, you’re making a light vinaigrette, so a little goes a long way). Mix with your fingers to ensure vinaigrette is coating everything. Let this marinate for 10-20 minutes to soak up the flavor. In the meantime you can chop up your salad leaves and put them in serving bowls. If you’re cooking fresh chicken on a weeknight … I salute you. Time is of the essence when I get home, so I have some pre-cut frozen chicken I warm up instead. Add this to your salad bowl. Then top with a ladle full of your marinated veggies and lightly sprinkle with feta cheese. Enjoy!
