Middle Eastern Spiced Chickpea Salad

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Looking for an easy, breezy recipe that you can pull out of your hat no matter what the summer may throw at you? This Middle Eastern Spiced Chickpea Salad was on our Fourth of July lineup and it knocked it out of the park. Still ready for a closeup on day two, what little we had left over was every bit as good as it was the day before. Adapted from (I love you,Yotam) Ottolenghi’s Jerusalem cookbook, it had plenty of online rave reviews. Using canned chickpeas speeds things up quite a bit, but you can soak and cook your own if you have time.

Serve your finished salad as is, or accompany it with yogurt and pita bread or pita chips. You could also add some chopped romaine or cooked and cooled pasta if you like, or stuff it into sliced pita bread with some yogurt. 

Vegan, picnic, side or main dish, totable, make-ahead, easy to make – it hits the mark all across the board. This is that new recipe you need to try now. You’ll be glad you did. 

Middle Eastern Spiced Chickpea Salad

dressing:

• 1 1/2 Tablespoons sherry vinegar
• zest from 1 lemon
• 2 Tablespoons lemon juice
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 garlic clove, peeled and smashed
• kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

chickpeas: 

• 1  14 ounce can chickpeas, drained but still wet
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1  1/2 teaspoons ground allspice
• 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2 Tablespoons olive oil

salad:

• 2 seedless cucumbers, diced
• 1 1/2 cups grape tomatoes, halved
• 1 small red onion, diced
• 1/2 cup cilantro, roughly chopped
• 1/4 cup flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped

Combine all ingredients for dressing in a jar. Shake well and set aside for 20 minutes.

Place chickpeas in a large bowl. Scatter spices over and toss to coat. Heat olive oil in a large pan over medium-high heat. Add chickpeas and fry for several minutes, shaking pan or stirring gently so that chickpeas remain coated with spices. Remove from heat and let cool.

Combine salad ingredients in large bowl, drizzle with half of dressing and toss. Transfer to serving bowl. Top with chickpeas and remaining dressing, and lightly toss. Serve immediately. 

– adapted lightly from the recipe as seen on recipetineats.com