Chickpeas are a versatile base for salads. They’re nutritious, they taste great and they’re really cheap.
Use quality chickpeas. You can use canned chickpeas — buy a brand you like or you can cook dried chickpeas yourself. It takes a bit of time, but they keep in the fridge and freezer for a while.
Add vegetables for colour and texture. I like lots of sweet tomatoes and crisp cucumbers. Any variety of cucumber works, but I usually buy the smaller, thin-skinned cucumbers (often sold as Lebanese cucumbers). You don’t need to peel or remove seeds. If you’re using thicker-skinned cucumbers, give them a peel.
Use a bright and flavoursome salad dressing. Chickpeas are a fantastic salad base, but they don’t have much flavour by themselves, so toss them with a tasty dressing. As the salad sits, the chickpeas absorb the dressing and get more and more delicious over time.
Use lots of fresh herbs. Most tender herbs will work here. Think about mint, parsley, thyme or a combination of herbs.
Chickpea Salad
Ingredients
- 3 cups cooked chickpeas
- 2 medium thin-skinned cucumbers
- 8 small tomatoes
- small-medium piece feta cheese
- extra virgin olive oil
- 1 large lemon
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1/2 teaspoon honey
- 1/4 cup freshly chopped mint
- freshly ground salt and pepper
Instructions
- Put the chickpeas in a large bowl
- Cut the cucumbers into quarters, lengthwise, and then chop into bite-size chunks. Cut the tomatoes into small wedges. .
- Add the cucumbers and tomatoes to the chickpeas then crumble the feta cheese on top
Dressing
- In a medium bowl, whisk juice of the lemon, olive oil, mustard, honey, and the fresh mint together
- Season with salt and pepper to taste. .
- Pour the dressing over the salad and toss