Minted Chickpea Side Salad

Hi world.

Well, this is my first blog post ever. I guess welcome to me to the 21st century. Anyway, I was not sure when I was going to come up with a recipe that was shareable and that incorporated fresh, local, seasonal ingredients and then it happened. Our neighbor gave us a handful of basil from her garden so, of course, we decided to make the standard pasta with pesto. You know how to make that right? We make a vegan version with basil, pine nuts, olive oil, salt, a little garlic and I also add a little nutritional yeast to taste to add back in a hint of the Parmesan flavor. It also thickens it a bit. Blend with a hand blender and voila.

But we were talking about chick pea salad. So, I thought, if we are going to do pasta with pesto, and even though we add artichoke hearts and fresh cherry tomatoes to it, that would not quite be a meal. Where is the protein, right? All of a sudden I had a vision of a cool chickpea side salad, lemony in flavor. My husband said "got it" and came up with something really simple and delicious. Here is an approximate recipe. Proportions are always to taste, but this is reasonable accounting of what he did.

2 cans chick peas

½ red onion

Juice of one lemon

Three tablespoons of olive oil

A fistful of chopped fresh mint

A few pinches of salt

A pinch of cumin

OK, the main ingredient is canned chickpeas, but there is FRESH MINT! Very summery, very in season, local, farmer's marketish or backyard gardenish... right? Do I pass? Anyway, it was yummy and really hit the spot, so if it passes for you, try it!

Sorry, no photo! I ate it before I had the chance to photograph! Yum. Next time.

Cheers,

Stephanie