Mediterranean Chickpea Salad

This Mediterranean Chickpea Salad is so fresh and flavorful, you’ll definitely go back for a second helping.  This salad goes well with the Mediterranean Lamb Kofta’s from my previous post.  Let’s get chopping… and I mean it.

Ingredients:

• Salad
  • 1 Green bell pepper, chopped
  • 1 Red bell pepper, chopped
  • 1 Yellow or orange bell pepper, chopped
  • 1/2 English cucumber (seedless), chopped (2 cups)
  • 1/2 Cup red onion, finely diced
  • 2 Cans (15.5oz) chickpeas, drained and rinsed
  • 1/2 Cup feta, crumbled
• Dressing
  • 3 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
  • 3 Tbsp. red wine vinegar
  • 2 Cloves garlic, minced
  • 1-1/2 tsp. dried oregano
  • 1 tsp. kosher salt
  • 1/2 tsp. fresh ground black pepper.

Preparations and Mixing:

• Salad
  • Chop and/or dice the fresh peppers, onions, parsley, cucumber and garlic. (I hinted there’s a bit of knife work going on with this recipe.)
  • Place the diced red onion in cold water and let it soak while you’re busy with all the other chopping and mixing.
  • Place the chickpeas, bell peppers, cucumber and feta cheese in a large mixing bowl.  I use one of those large “That’s a Bowls” or else I’ll have a huge mess on the counter to clean up.  I hate clean up.
  • Drain the red onion and add to the mixing bowl.
  • Mix all the these ingredients together. I sort of use a folding action so that you don’t over work the feta.  If that happens the salad can get a bit mulchy.

• Dressing
  • In a small mixing bowl or a 2 cup measuring cup, whisk together the extra virgin olive oil, red wine vinegar, garlic, oregano, salt and pepper.
  • Pour the dressing over the top of the salad. I usually divide it in half and mix it and the add the second half and mix it again.  I find that picking the bowl up and tossing it without a spoon helps keep the salad looking crisp and fresh.
  • Transfer the finished salad to a serving dish, or not.
  • Let the dish marinate for 30-45 minutes in the refrigerator before serving.

That’s it, pretty simple minus a bit of chopping and dicing.  At this point you probably deserve a glass of wine while cleaning up.