Market Salad with Roasted Chickpeas
Sometimes posts come from careful planning, developing recipes and our families and friends testing possibilities. There are posts that need no recipe test, mostly cocktails, or items that don't marinate, cook or change all that much. Sometimes, they come from a really great visit to the farmer's market and a simple saturday filled with doing whatever it is you want at that moment in time, resulting in a beautiful and fresh meal.
This past Saturday my mom and I went off to enjoy the farmer's market. It was a cooler saturday for June, and it looked like the sky was about to open up so we went early. We wandered to each and every stall, which is really how farmers markets should be done. We left with beautiful baby lettuce, horseradish, shallots, turnips, rapini, fresh bread, yummy cold pressed juice, a full belly from a nice egg and cheese sandwich and these magic apples that were crazy delicious. I think that's a pretty good result in zero planning!
My mom wanted to try roasted chickpeas, which I have made before, but they took forever since I used the canned variety for the sake of non-planning. We had discussed how in reality to get that crunch they can't be canned because it takes longer to cook and never really de-hydrates like you want them to in order to get crunchy. With our lovely baby lettuces, and these chickpeas in mind, we knew that something roasted and sweet would go well with the chickpeas.
We decided on shallot and turnip when we saw the possibilities at the market. We could have also used beet or sweet potato, but we wanted the flavor to shine with other things, and sweet potato and beet both have very distinct and possibly overwhelming flavors. To contrast the sweet and "spicy" flavors, a crisp and tangy yogurt - garlic - lemon dressing was in order.
With a little snack of blue cheese stuffed olives and a nice glass of rose, we were set with a lighter salad for dinner since it was going to be just us girls.
MARKET SALAD with ROASTED CHICKPEAS
makes two dinner salads
INGREDIENTS
- 1/2 pound dried chickpeas soaked overnight.
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 3-4 tbs olive oil
- 1 turnip
- fresh thyme
- 1 shallot
- baby lettuces
- 2 stalks celery
- chives
- 1/2 cup plain yogurt
- juice of half a lemon
- 1 garlic clove
- salt and pepper to taste
INSTRUCTIONS
After soaking your dried chickpeas overnight in water, rinse them again and dry them with paper towel. Set the oven to 400F and spread the chickpeas on a baking sheet. Toss them with olive oil and the spices, a pinch of salt and pepper and put them in the oven for 30-40 minutes.
While the chickpeas start in the oven, clean the turnip and cut into small cubes (1/2 inch). Clean and slice the shallot and toss both with a little olive oil and a pinch of salt and pepper. Sprinkle some fresh thyme leaves over the turnip an place in the oven with the chickpeas for the last twenty minutes until cooked through.
Remove the chickpeas and veggies from the oven and let cool a bit. Clean your lettuce, chop your chives and celery and start on your dressing while waiting.
For the dressing, mince your garlic and add to juice of the lemon and the yogurt. Mix together well and add a pinch of salt and pepper. Notice the addition of salt and pepper at every stage. This makes your salad correctly seasoned, instead of ONLY the dressing being seasoned. It makes a difference.
To assemble layer your lettuces, then your chickpeas, turnips and shallots on top and dribble your yogurt dressing on top. Sprinkle with chives and serve.