As much as I am a soup person, I also like light salads that don’t break the bank or takes very little time to put together and yet nutritious. This week, Sujata Shukla gave us #LevantineCuisine as the theme for week 181 #FoodieMondayBloghop. Sujata has an amazing collection of recipes from around the world, including very traditional recipes from parts of India too. I especially admire her salads and dishes that are cooked with fresh, clean ingredients and have bookmarked many to try out.
I had cooked many dishes from this region earlier, and after Indian, I have a thing for Middle Eastern and Levantine Cuisine. Although I had many ideas and bookmarks for this cuisine, the week and the weekend particularly was chaotic, so I opted for a simple, yet yummy salad featuring Chickpeas that was very filling as a meal by itself. My husband is a huge fan of salads, and although he couldn’t eat this , I shall be making this slightly more elaborately again.
Having cooked chickpeas always in my freezer, this was a breeze to make and eat. Do make this for your family and let me know how they liked it. you may also use Canned chickpeas (drained) to make this or soak and pressure cook the raw chickpeas as done the traditional way
Prep time – 10 mins, Cook time – Nil (If you have cooked chickpeas on hand), Serves – 1
Ingredients:
Cooked Chickpeas / Canned (and drained) – 1/2 cup
Cubed Cucumber – 1/4 cup
Deseeded and cubed tomato – 1/4 cup
Onions – 1/4 – chopped / cubed
Chopped bell peppers – 1/4 cup
Salt & pepper – to taste
Dressing : 1 tsp Olive Oil. 1/4 tsp Cider Vinegar, 1/2 tsp Zataar (a middle eastern spice), 1/2 tsp homemade dried mint powder, Lemon juice, 1/4 tsp brown sugar (opt.)
Chopped parsley / fresh coriander – 1/2 T – for garnish
How to:
In a bowl, whisk all ingredients for the dressing well and refrigerate it.
In another bowl, add all the other ingredients (apart from the dressing and garnish) and chill for 30 mins.
Just before serving, add the dressing to the salad ingredients, mix well, garnish and serve chilled
PIN FOR LATER
Other Middle Eastern + Levantine dishes on the blog:
Laffa – Middle Eastern Flatbread
Lebanese Meal with Baked Falafels, Roasted Veggies, Pita
Baked Potato and Chickpea Soup
Qatari Kahwa (Date Spiced Coffee – no milk added)
Umm Ali (Arabic Dessert) – Low Fat Version
Baba Ghanoush – Middle Eastern Eggplant Dip
Moroccan Harira – Chickpea Broth
Muhammara (with a twist) served with homemade Lavash
Zatar spiced chickpea salad looks so tempting. Love this colourful medley of veggies in the salad.Fantastic share Kalyani.
Your Lebanese chickpea salad looks absolutely refreshing and flavorful Kalyani ! I can happily have this healthy salad any time of the day.
I love the look and sound of this Lebanese style salad! So delicious and inviting! I'm surely going to try this out. 🙂
Salad looks so healthy, flavourful and delicious. Loved this simple yet yummy recipe.
Chickpea salad is super right Kal? Like you, one or the other pulses are always in my refrigerator too .. its the safest way to snack and sometimes our dinner too. Keeps away the cravings. Loved the dressing recipe particularly with cider vinegar adding the zing.
This salads is going straight into my grain bowl lunch dish. I have stocks of za'atar ( a lovely blend) and the other ingredients are always at hand. Just have to remember to soak the chickpeas the night before I want to make the salad, and then pressure cook it. Putting the salad together sounds a breeze! Sujata Shukla of PepperOnPizza
I sure want will want to gobble this delicious bowl of salad. I will like you keep some of these in fridge from now on.
super cool use of Zatar in the salad , this looks so amazing. with all these crisp element and the chickpea it is a perfect lunch.
super cool use of Zatar in the salad , this looks so amazing. with all these crisp element and the chickpea it is a perfect lunch.
Indian flavored and Levantine flavored chickpea salad is my favorite. I love how refreshing and light the salad tastes and adding zaatar is a must. I love it.
Chickpea Salad looks so refreshing !!! So simple to make and taste so yum as well I just love this at any time of the day kalyani 🙂
I love this idea of storing chickpeas in freezer. Never done it. This salad looks so refreshing. And I love zaatar and sumac too.May be I will make this salad soon