Halloween has passed y'all! And with sweater weather comes warm apple cider, mulling spices on the stove, and that random cozy candle burning bright on that living room end table. Mmm... That autumn atmosphere. How rich.
But with seasonal gain comes loss. Just sayin'. And I for one am going to miss my weekly chickpea salad. Yup, my favorite past-time of summer 2024. To me, chickpea salad is the ultimate fun, zesty substitute to the traditional green salad. Not a huge fan of romaine, arugula, and all their ruffage-y brothers and sisters? I hear ya. And that's why chickpea salad is just so enticing and satisfying.
So what is chickpea salad anyway? And how does one make it? Well, to stay on brand with this old-timey "vintage" pop culture blog, let's dive bowl-first into its origin story. Chickpea salad likely originated centuries ago in the Mediterranean. Think Egypt, Lebanon Italy, Spain, Israel, and Turkey, places where chickpeas were grown natively and consumed by the local inhabitants. And that last country, Turkey, is where legend has it the first wild chickpea plant was said to have grown.
Since those ancient B.C. days, chickpeas have since been cultivated and grown in new places around the world, such as India and other warm climate countries. Oh, and cute note, the chickpea has an alternate name of the "garbanzo," which is a Basque word from northern Spain. Hey, hey longtime Spanish food brand Goya. I know that I will never see a can of "chickpeas" on your inventory shelf. Nope. Kudos for staying true to your Spanish roots.
But, let's get down to my two chickpea salad recipes. Okay, so the first one is compromised of chickpeas, sliced tomatoes, sliced cucumbers, and a generous drizzling of olive oil and red wine vinegar. And, if I have fresh lemon in the house, I go for a good squeeze of that, too. Toss it all together, and voila! Simple, so fresh-testing, and so healthy. It's like summer in a bowl. Make a big bowl and it'll last 3-4 days Mmm...
And my second recipe? Well, it has just a slight variation. It's chickpeas, sliced tomatoes, sliced cucumbers, and crumbled feta cheese. Yup, for the readers whose stomachs are fine with lactose, here's the "richer" recipe. Oh, and instead of red wine vinegar, I use a heartier balsamic vinegar. The balsamic vinegar is tasty when it absorbs itself into the feta cheese. But, be sure not to douse the salad with too much balsamic vinegar. You want the chickpea salad to "absorb" the balsamic vinegar, but not be "saturated" by it. No sogginess, please.
And there we have it. As we trade in our chickpeas and vinegars until next summer, I wax nostalgic over this healthy Mediterranean delight. Long live the perennial chickpea salad. Eaten by our sandal-wearing, sun-kissed ancestors, and our future descendants. Delish!
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