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summer chickpea salad

servings
4

method

Chickpeas are pretty under-used in this country, to be honest. In places like Morocco, Italy and Spain they are prized like our Jersey new potato. Still, we have a lot more choice now than we used to have. If you go to a Spanish deli or specialist counter, you will generally be able to find jars of cooked chickpeas in water and these are the ones you want to make this salad really good. They should look a little plumper than tinned chickpeas but, of course, both tinned ones or dried ones can be used successfully.

This salad is a great one for making up as you go along; you can use different spices, sun-dried tomatoes and spicy chorizo sausages, for instance.

First of all, finely slice your red onion. Once that's done, finely slice your chillies then roughly chop your tomatoes, mixing them in with the onion and chillies. Scrape all of this, and the juice, into a bowl and dress with the juice of 1½ lemons and about 3 times as much good extra virgin olive oil. Season to taste. Heat the chickpeas in a pan, then add 90 per cent of them to the bowl. Mush up the remaining chickpeas and add these as well – they will give a nice creamy consistency. Allow to marinate for a little while and serve at room temperature.

Just as you're ready to serve, give the salad a final dress with the fresh mint and basil. Taste one last time for seasoning – you may want to add the juice from your remaining lemon half at this point. Place on a nice serving dish and crumble over the feta cheese.

• from Jamie's Dinners

ingredients

• 1 small red onion, peeled
• 1–2 fresh red chillies, deseeded
• 2 handfuls of ripe red or yellow tomatoes
• 2 lemons
extra virgin olive oil
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 x 410g jar or tin of chickpeas, drained, or around 4 large handfuls of soaked and cooked chickpeas
• a handful of fresh mint, chopped
a handful of fresh green or purple basil, finely ripped
• 200g/7oz feta cheese

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1. by Carys on Sat 30 Jul 2011 @ 15:53

One of the best summer salads I've seen and tasted. Tried it on my blog: iwilllearntocookiwilllearntocookiwilllearnto.wordpress.com/ And a girlfriend thought cucumber, black beans and grilled chicken would be great additions! Yum. Thanks for sharing online! So easy to bring my iPhone into the grocery shop instead of my cookbook and collect the ingredients. Thanks.

2. by Jessica on Mon 25 Jul 2011 @ 19:18

Delicious! :)

3. by SANDY on Fri 22 Jul 2011 @ 11:16

Thankyou Jamie this receipt if gr8 - iv put some shredded crabsticks on top and its delicous!

4. by Nikisha on Fri 22 Jul 2011 @ 10:07

Love chickpea salad, I do mine a bit differently, without heating.<br /> I just chop tomatoes, add the chick peas, a good amount of parsley and some chopped mint leaves. For the dressing I use lemon zest, lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper, mix it with the salad and then crumble some feta cheese over it. Perfect for summer! Think I'm gonna make this today!! :D

5. by Joh on Fri 22 Jul 2011 @ 09:47

I like the recipe. Was wondering though, living in Australia as I do and not feeling inclined toward salad at this time of year, could you tag your recipes with the season? That way when people who are from the Southern Hemisphere could click on winter and get some yummy recipe ideas and vice versa?<br /> <br /> Thanks for your great work:)<br />

6. by Irene on Tue 10 May 2011 @ 00:38

I like the recipe but I LOVE Jamie !

7. by logandk on Wed 25 Aug 2010 @ 18:40

I love this salad. And it's goes great with some spicy lamb meatballs. Made it the other day with parsley instead of mint, and it worked fine. I even took a photo: http://coookin.com/dishes/summer-chickpea-salad

8. by yoyemeira on Sat 12 Jun 2010 @ 18:32

I have to try this great salad...Looks AWESOME!!!! Thanks Jamie....big HI from Colombia...

9. by Perrin on Sat 22 Aug 2009 @ 22:13

This is one of the most flavoursim and good looking salads I have had in while! Cheers Jamie

10. by jax on Wed 22 Jul 2009 @ 10:42

Chickpea dip is a must try it define!!!!!!

11. by Sam on Sat 06 Jun 2009 @ 20:44

Susie, skip feta, olive oil and everything else that modern diets call for and you too will live less.
Greeks and especially Cretans live the most out of all of Europe and possibly the whole world.

Follow the Mediterranean diet and live longer.

12. by Tom on Tue 12 May 2009 @ 20:21

Fantastic, nothing less :)

13. by Nahrin on Sat 25 Apr 2009 @ 23:17

dear jamie,we make the same thing in our country I'm from Bangladesh.But just add boiled eggs then chopped,tamarine water ,more green chili chopped,mix with cumin powder and that is called "Chotpoti".I find it in India as well.I 'll try it with cheese in this beautiful british summer..Cheers mate.-Nahrin

14. by mireille georgian on Sat 07 Feb 2009 @ 11:33

dear jamie, at christmas i took a receipe for a chicken salad with ceaser sauce but i lost it somehow. i did it once the ingredientes used in the sauce were: some anchois with garlic, creme fraiche, parmesan. than we have the iceberg with the chiken breast. but i just dont know the name i tried to type "chiken ceaser salad" but i didnt find any result can u answer me now plzzzz

15. by Susie on Thu 08 Jan 2009 @ 16:18

It's good without all the feta too, not to mention healthier!

16. by Teddy on Wed 24 Dec 2008 @ 07:07

Amazing salad! Loved by everyone! This salad will not let you down.

17. by Joan on Thu 18 Dec 2008 @ 17:08

looks good, going to try it for a hot South African Christmas Lunch

18. by Arlette on Sat 06 Sep 2008 @ 03:35

lovely summer side this....just the thing I was looking for. Thanks Jamie!

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