Chickpeas are one of my favorite ingredients. They are extremely versatile, they work well in curries, vegetable patties, salads, and even in desserts. To be honest, sometimes I eat them straight out of a jar. Not often, but it does happen in some busy times when I don’t even have time to shop for fresh produce. Fortunately, I am quite good with time management and these times do not happen often. Besides – I don’t think that 10 minutes to prep a full meal is that much and this is about how long this simple recipe takes. If you are good with knives you most likely only need 5 minutes to make the salad. But even the most inexperienced cooks should be ready with the salad in 10 minutes.
The secret to this recipe lays in the sauce. The combination of tahini, lemon, and yogurt is irresistible with just about anything and I often use it as a dip for fresh cucumber.
To make a full meal out of it, chickpeas are a wonderful addition. Feel free to swap out any veggies you don’t like or just add in more different veggies – peppers, radishes, or anything else you fancy. For tomatoes, I am very lucky to have several relatives who grow their own, so I have a wide variety of different colors and sizes to play with right now. If you only have regular red tomatoes, just use those. And in case you wish to make a bigger batch ahead of time go ahead and do it, but keep the tomatoes and cucumbers separately and mix them in right before eating as otherwise they make the salad watery.
Filing Chickpea Salad with Tahini Dressing
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Serves: 2
Ingredients:
1 tbsp tahini
Juice from ½ lemon
½ cup Greek yogurt
Salt and pepper, to taste
3 spring onions
A small handful of fresh coriander
2-3 small cucumbers
2-3 larger tomatoes
14 oz of chickpeas
Instructions: Start from the sauce – mix tahini with lemon juice and a tiny bit of salt to loosen it up a little. Then mix in yogurt and season with salt and pepper.
Chop up the onions, coriander, tomatoes, and cucumber.
Mix the chickpeas, chopped veggies, and the sauce, have another taste to make sure the seasoning is on point, and share the salad with a friend!
By Kadri Raig
Kadri is a food blogger and yoga teacher from Estonia. She loves to spend time in the kitchen, but most of her recipes are simple and don’t take more than 20 minutes of active cooking time. She thinks that everybody can find time to cook healthy food at home, it is just a question of planning. "I work in an office full time, teach yoga 7-8 hours a week and write a blog. So if I manage to cook most of my meals, then so do you!" Connect with Kadri and enjoy many more of her delicious healthy recipes on her website here: www.kahvliga.ee.