It seems like a good week to focus on a salad recipe with the heat wave we are experiencing here in Vancouver right now. There's a whole world of salads to explore, so where to start? I decided to continue with the chickpea focus. This is one versatile bean! It's really an all season ingredient too, working as well in a salad as it does in a chilly-day stew. So, back to the salad.
I basically threw this together - working with limited time and ingredients I just happened to have in the fridge this week. First, the tin of chickpeas. I do have dried chickpeas and it really is quite easy to prepare these - soaking overnight, draining, rinsing thoroughly and boiling - but I often end up pulling out a tin of chickpeas as it's just so easy. I wanted the chickpeas to be the dominant ingredient in this salad, but with some added crunch, colour and zest. Out came the red bell pepper, cucumber, green onions and fresh lemon. In keeping with the Moroccan theme here I had a small bunch of fresh mint. It actually wasn't the best bunch of mint I've purchased but I got enough out of it to make the salad work. In retrospect I would chop this up more finely then I did - but the flavour and smell were on mark. We usually have fresh parsley, so out came a handful of this to be chopped up. A little white vinegar, half a lemon squeezed over it all, a few glugs of olive oil, salt and pepper - and it was almost ready.
I felt like it needed a little something extra so I put a bit of yoghurt into a small bowl and added some ground cumin for a simple yoghurt dressing. You could skip this part, as with the fresh lemon, oil and a touch of vinegar it really is nice, light and tangy. You could add different herbs to alter the theme - an Italian mixture, or some paprika lightly sprinkled over the salad. The next day I added chopped tomatoes and this worked well. I think chopped or whole kalamata olives and chopped or crumbled feta mixed in would work well - and fresh squeezed lime would also be good alternative to the lemon.
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