Spiced Chickpeas & Fresh Vegetable Salad

I love the mixture of cold crunchy vegetables and warm toasty chickpeas. I like this salad because it tastes fresh and is very flexible. For example, I don’t like raw onions, so I excluded them.  

A few days after I initially made the salad in the topmost photo, I did another version with carrots, a ton of parsley (leaning towards tabbouleh), no cilantro and canned chickpeas (pictured above).  The canned chickpeas worked out just fine, so don’t worry if you forget to soak the chickpeas the night before. To make it a light dinner, I topped it all off with pan-fried salmon and a dollop of Greek yogurt for creaminess. Next time, I’ll add some feta or chopped olives for a surprise hit of salt.

When tomatoes are in season (just a few more months!), this will blow my mind even more!

As usual, I hate recipes that use measurements for vegetables (how many onions is 1 cup?) so I’ve adapted the recipe for whole vegetables. If you have a little more or less of something, no big deal. I like a lot of cucumber in my salad so if you use a large cucumber or 2 medium cucumbers, no big deal! Finally, this holds up in the fridge pretty well: at least 3 days.

Spiced Chickpeas & Fresh Vegetable Salad (adapted from Jerusalem cookbook)

Serves 4

• 1/2 cup dried chickpeas (or 1 can chickpeas)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 small cucumbers
• 2 large tomatoes
• 1 bunch radishes
• 1 red pepper, ribbed & seeded
• 1/4 bunch of cilantro, roughly chopped
• 1/2 bunch of parsley, roughly chopped
• 6 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 Tbsp lemon juice
• 1.5 Tbsp sherry vinegar
• 1 clove minced garlic
• 3/4 tsp superfine sugar (can be omitted, for example if its summer and your tomatoes are going to be super sweet)
• 1 tsp ground cardamom
• 1.5 tsp ground allspice
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• Greek yogurt (optional but tasty)
• salt & pepper to taste

1. Soak dried chickpeas overnight in large bowl with plenty of cold water. 
2. The next day, drain chickpeas. Place in a large saucepan, cover with 2x water : chickpeas. Bring to a boil and simmer for ~1 hour until completely tender. Skim off any foam while cooking and drain when tender.
3. Dice cucumbers, tomatoes, radishes, and red peppers. Combine with cilantro & parsley.
4. Dressing: mix together 5 Tbsp olive oil, 2 Tbsp lemon juice, 1.5 Tbsp sherry vinegar, 1 clove minced garlic and 3/4 Tbsp sugar. Season to taste with salt & pepper. Pour over vegetables and lightly toss.
5. Mix cardamom, allspice, cumin & 1/4 tsp salt on a plate. Toss cooked chickpease in the spice mix to coat well. Heat olive oil in a frying pan over medium heat and lightly fry the chickpeas for 2-3 minutes, stirring gently to get an even fry.
6. Divide salad among four plates. Spoon warm spiced chickpeas on top.
7. If you want a creamier salad, add a dollop of Greek yogurt!