Foodie Friday – Let’s Get Creative with Chickpeas!

As part of my drive to adopt a healthier lifestyle (diet and exercise), I am trying to stepping outside my food comfort zone to experiment with different recipes and vary my diet. Pondering the health benefits of chickpeas, I consulted Google and stumbled upon this interesting article. 15 Health and Nutrition Benefits of Chickpeas Who knew they contained so many vitamins and minerals and were so versatile?

I am already a fan of hummus, not because I knew it was a healthy dip but because I like it, especially flavoured varieties such as carrot and ginger, beetroot, and curry. I asked myself what other recipes I could create using chickpeas? I surfed the net for ideas and then remembered the lunch our granddaughter in France made for lunch. Voilà!

Versatile Chickpea Salad – Get Creative with Chickpeas!

Ingredients:

• 1 can (15 oz) chickpeas (420g)
• 1 diced (chopped) red onion
• 1 cup of chopped tomatoes
• 2 cups of chopped cucumber
• Feta cheese crumbled (the quantity is up to you) OR a tin of tuna
• 1 chopped avocado pear (optional)
• 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts (optional)
• 1/2 cup of seeds of your choice (optional)
• 1/4 cup chopped chives
• 1 teaspoon of dried dill
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice (jiffy or fresh)
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano or 2 teaspoons of fresh
• Pepper and salt to taste (I don’t add salt)

Useful Conversion tables: Cooking and Baking Conversions: Ounces, Cups, Metric, and More

Directions

To make the dressing

Mix the olive oil, fresh lemon juice, salt and pepper and dried oregano in a small bowl or shaker.

Drain and rinse the tinned, presoaked chickpeas (presoak if dried) and place in a salad bowl. Add the remaining ingredients.
Drizzle the dressing over the salad ingredients and toss gently so all the ingredients are coated evenly.
Serve immediately or place in a refrigerator for one hour to allow the flavours to fuse.

Then serve!

Tip. I made enough salad for two days. It was okay the following day, but I’d drain the excess dressing from the dish before storing it in the refrigerator overnight. Add the avocado just before serving.

Related posts: https://pigletinportugal.com/foodie-friday/

How to Join the Foodie Friday Challenge Blog Hop

Let’s talk about food, whether it’s sharing your favourite recipes, diets, growing fruit and vegetables, your harvest ups and downs, hints and tips, or pictures of plates of food – even diets. If it’s food-related, why not post it on your blog and add it to the Foodie Friday Blog Hop

• Create a post about food at any point during the following week and include the tag: Foodie Friday. You’re welcome to use previous ‘food-related’ posts.
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• You are welcome to include the Foodie Friday badge on your blog. If you can’t save it from the image below, please email me, and I’ll send it as a jpeg.
• Don’t forget to add a link to your post when you comment below so we can keep track and support each other.
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• tag #foodiefriday