Summer chickpea salad
Chickpeas are pretty under-used in this country, to be honest. In places like Morocco, Italy and Spain they are prized like our Jersey new potato. Still, we have a lot more choice now than we used to have. If you go to a Spanish deli or specialist counter, you will generally be able to find jars of cooked chickpeas in water and these are the ones you want to make this salad really good. They should look a little plumper than tinned chickpeas but, of course, both tinned ones or dried ones can be used successfully. This salad is a great one for making up as you go along; you can use different spices, sun-dried tomatoes and spicy chorizo sausages, for instance.
Estimated Nutrition (whole recipe, rough)
Counts 9 of 10 ingredients — the other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and contribute nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume — 9 portions →
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Chickpea | 1/2 cup canned (120g) drained | 134 |
| Olive Oil | 1 tbsp (14g) | 119 |
| Feta Cheese | 1 oz (28g) cheddar | 113 |
| Onion | 1 medium (110g) | 44 |
| Tomato | 1 medium (123g) | 22 |
| Lemon | juice of 1 lemon (48ml) | 12 |
| Black Pepper | 1 tsp ground (2.3g) | 6 |
| Basil | 5 leaves fresh (2.5g) | 1 |
| Salt | 1 tsp (6g) | 0 |
| Peppermint | not in our table | 0 |
Totals for the whole recipe, adding one typical portion per ingredient — listed above. Quantities in the recipe are not counted, so this is a rough guide only — not suitable for medical or dietary planning.
Ingredients
- 1 small red onion, peeled
- 1-2 fresh red chillies, deseeded
- 2 handfuls ripe red or yellow tomatoes
- 1 lemon
- extra virgin olive oil
- sea salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- 410 g tinned chickpeas, drained, or around 4 large handfuls of soaked and cooked chickpeas
- 1 handful fresh mint, chopped
- 1 handful fresh green or purple basil, finely ripped
- 100 g feta cheese