Mediterranean Chickpea Salad Recipe

The ingredients can be easily found at any grocery store, I usually shop at Kroger because you can really save on produce with the digital coupons offered via the Kroger site. The ingredients needed for 4 servings of this dish are:

These are all really affordable and healthy ingredients that can be easily found anywhere and be used for a plethora of other recipes.

Steps:

After gathering your ingredients you’ll want to preheat your oven to 450º F and line a baking sheet with aluminum foil to bake your chickpeas. Next, you’re going to drain the can of chickpeas, rinse them in a strainer and then pat them dry. You’ll want to make sure they are fully dry so they can develop a crispy outer shell in the oven. After drying your chickpeas, you will put them in a bowl to season them. Drizzle a bit of olive oil on them, and then give them a good coating in cumin, salt, pepper, paprika, and cayenne pepper. I don’t use exact measurements, making sure to coat my chickpeas liberally. After coating your chickpeas, you can pour them out on the baking sheet and pop them in the oven for 20 minutes (checking and tossing them halfway through).

While the chickpeas are baking, you can start making the grain of your choice. This recipe typically calls for couscous, but I’ve made it with jasmine rice or even quinoa and it’s just as delicious. I like to use the Near East brand for my grains because they are really easy to cook and provide instructions for both stove-top or microwave preparations.

Ingredients
1 can of 15 oz. chickpeas	Olive oil
Half of a large cucumber	Quarter of a red onion
1 ½ cups (8 oz) of cherry tomatoes	1 large lemon
Grain of your choice (I usually use Near East jasmine rice or couscous)	1 ½ tablespoons of red wine vinegar
Honey	Dijon mustard
Dried oregano, cumin, salt, pepper, paprika, cayenne pepper	Optional: pita bread, roasted red peppers, olives

Now that everything is finally done cooking, it’s time to assemble. To assemble the salad, put the cooled couscous in a large bowl, followed by the veggies and cooled chickpeas and dress as you like. This meal is one of my favorites to make in a large batch at the beginning of the week and prep it for lunch or dinner throughout the week. You can store this salad for up to four days in your refrigerator. I like to keep the dressing separate when meal prepping so it doesn’t make my couscous soggy. And if you want to add some carbs to this dish, pita bread is an awesome way to do so and it also is a great vehicle to scoop your salad up with!

This is a really unique dish that is extremely customizable in its ingredients and doesn’t take too much time to make! Healthy meals are usually pricier to make and buy, but this salad is inexpensive and won’t leave your wallet hurting.

And now that the chickpeas, and couscous (or whatever other grain you choose) are cooking, you can prepare the vegetables and make the dressing. You’ll want to halve the cherry tomatoes, finely chop the onion and cut the cucumbers into thick disks then quarter those disks. You can also chop the optional veggies at this time as well!

Next is my favorite part of this recipe, the dressing. I like to make the dressing in a mason jar so it’s easy to shake and store when you’re done. You’re going to add 3 tablespoons of olive oil, lemon juice (to your liking), 1 ½ tablespoons of red wine vinegar, 3 tablespoons of honey, 1 tablespoon of dijon mustard and a teaspoon of dried oregano and shake it together in your jar. This dressing is so easy to whip up, full of flavor and adds a unique taste to the salad.

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