In my family, there is always a disagreement over what side to serve with the meat - I like a vegetable kebab of mushrooms, courgettes, onions and peppers. However that is my daughter Arabella's idea of hell. She would normally opt for something simple such as chopped cucumber but that is far too boring for me. Pascal's ideal would be a pasta or potato salad but I try and push him to something a bit lighter as neither of us are "summer body ready"!! So instead today we compromised on this salad which I found in Olive magazine. It took about 15 minutes in total to prepare.
Ingredients for 4 people:
Juice of 1 lemon
4 tbsp of olive oil
2 tsp cumin seeds
1 small red chilli, seeded and diced (optional - we left this out)
2 x 400g tin of chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1 red onion, chopped
1/2 a cucumber, diced
12 baby plus or cherry tomatoes, halved
100g feta, crumbled
A small bunch of dill, parsley or mint, chopped (I used mint as that is what we had in the garden)
In a large bowl, lightly mash the chickpeas with a potato masher or the end of a rolling pin. I didn't realise I was meant to rinse the chickpeas first and thankfully it didn't seem to make too much of a difference. Add the onions, cucumber and tomatoes.
In a separate bowl whisk together the lemon juice, 4 tbsp of olive oil, cumin seeds and chilli (if using) and season generously. Then pour into the chickpea mix and toss together.
Leave to marinate for 5 minutes and then stir through the feta and herbs to serve.
This was a super successful salad. We are all huge hummus fans (despite the effect it has on my husband's bottom) and so love chickpeas. This tasted very fresh and flavoursome and I loved the Greek salad aspect - feta is one of my favourite cheeses. I think my daughter Arabella would have preferred it with goat's cheese which would also work. This was a perfect barbecue side however it would also work on it's own as a main with or without some fresh bread depending on how good (or naughty) you are feeling!
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