Easy Mediterranean Chickpea Salad

This easy recipe creates a wonderful chickpea salad. It contains, of course, a good amount of protein rich chickpeas. But as well as that there are a good variety of vegetables and herbs. When combined with the simplest of tasty dressings and a little feta it makes a great side dish. Of course it can be served in larger portions as main dish too.

Obviously the major ingredient is chickpeas, which are also known as garbanzo beans. Using the chickpeas as a base the salad can be assembled using a variety of vegetables. My recipe specifies my preferred vegetables and herbs. But you can use other combinations of vegetables and herbs to suit your preference.

Not only can you vary those, you can also adjust the volumes of each ingredient too. So in my recipe I detail what I used, and the amount of each ingredient. But remember that it is only a suggestion. Adjust the volumes to what you prefer.

I used, cucumber, cherry, grape and mini plum tomatoes, roasted red peppers, bell pepper, spring onions(scallions) and black olives. I also included fresh chopped parsley and mint and some feta cheese. But I could easily have also used some capers, courgettes and freshly chopped basil, or host of other ingredients.

I used canned chickpeas, which I drained and then rinsed thoroughly and drained again. But I didn’t discard the liquid from the cans as that is aquafaba which can be used instead of eggs and egg whites to create things like meringues and even mayonnaise.

Easy Recipe

This recipe is so easy. Simple chop the vegetables and herbs and mix them together with the chickpeas. Then make the simple dressing by combining olive oil, lemon juice, white condiment or any type of vinegar, garlic and dried oregano. Mix that into the vegetables and sprinkle with feta. That is all there is to it.

It all takes just 15 minutes.

As I mentioned above this is great as a side dish, served with fish or meat. But it can be used as a main dish too, with perhaps some hard boiled eggs or chopped ham.

My Salad

My salad was ready in 15 minutes. The combination of herbs and veg worked so well. The dressing had exactly the right level of acidity. I used a white condiment which is similar to a white balsamic vinegar, in contained wine vinegar and grape must. But since that is not easily available any wine vinegar, cider vinegar or distilled vinegar will work well too. All in all the entire dish was delicious.

Indeed my niece, who was the recipient of half the salad, said it was “amazing” and was exactly like those she has each day when she is holiday on the continent.

Another easy recipe is: Easy Raspberry Brownie Bars.

Easy Mediterranean Chickpea Salad

Recipe by geoffcooCourse: Stove top recipesCuisine: MediterraneanDifficulty: Easy

Servings

8

servings

Prep time

15

minutes

Cooking timeminutes

Ingredients

• Salad

• 2 x 400g(2 x 14oz) cans of chickpeas, drained and rinsed and drained again.

• 1 large cucumber(English cucumber) quartered lengthwise and chopped into thick chunks.

• 300g(10 oz) chopped cherry, grape, mini plum tomatoes, halved

• 2 roasted red peppers, drained of oil and patted dry, then chopped

• 1 fresh bell pepper chopped

• 150g(about 5 oz) pitted black olives, halved

• 8 spring onions(scallions) finely sliced

• 150g(10 oz) feta cheese for crumbling

• bunch of parsley finely chopped, about 1/4 cup

• sprig of mint finely chopped, about 1 tbsp

• salt and pepper to taste

• Dressing

• 60ml(1/4 cup) olive oil

• 30ml(2 tbsp) white condiment or wine vinegar, or cider vinegar or distilled vinegar

• 30ml(2 tbps) lemon juice

• 2 tsp minced garlic

• 1 tsp dried oregano, broken down by rubbing between fingers

• salt and pepper to taste

Directions

• In a bowl, or jar, place the oil, white condiment/vinegar, lemon juice, garlic and oregano.
• Season lightly with salt and pepper.
• Whisk thoroughly until emulsified(shake well with the lid on if using a jar), then set aside.
• In a large bowl place the cucumber, olives, roasted peppers, bell pepper, tomatoes, spring onions and chickpeas.
• Use your hands to thoroughly mix them all together.
• Sprinkle the parsley and mint on the top and mix with your hands again.
• Add a little salt and pepper to taste and mix again.
• Pour the dressing onto the salad and mix thoroughly.
• Crumble the feta cheese on the top and mix again.

Notes

• Remember that you can vary the list of ingredients and the volumes to specific tastes.