Theme: Soups & Salads
Dish: Protein Based - Chickpea Salad
We are onto our 2nd week of marathon for this month. My theme for this week is "Soups & Salads" and to add interest and make the theme a little more challenging, Valli wants us to make soups & salads that use one star ingredient for each dish. Today's dish has a "Chickpeas" as the star protein rich ingredient. I picked this theme because with my husband traveling on business for the past couple weeks I've been cooking for just myself. Salads fit right in since making a single serving salad is much easier than cooking something.
Tahini is one of my favorite ingredients, I love the nuttiness and the creaminess it imparts to any dish. So when I saw this Tahini Buttermilk dressing recipe from Kalyn's Kitchen, I pinned it right away to try it soon. I used nice thick greek yogurt instead of buttermilk since I didn't have buttermilk on hand. I guess the dressing will be tangy with buttermilk, but I liked the creaminess that Greek yogurt gave to the dressing. Dressing also uses some Sumac, a middle eastern version of Indian aamchoor (dry mango powder). I was lucky that one of my dear Turkish friend bought me some Sumac from a turkish grocery.
For the Salad:
Chickpeas - 1 cup cooked (I used half of a 16oz. can, rinsed and drained)
Cucumber - ¼cup, diced
Red Pepper - ¼cup, diced
Blueberries - ¼cup
Avocado - half of a medium fruit, diced
Mixed greens - 2cups
For the Dressing:
Greek Yogurt - 3tbsp
Extra virgin Olive oil - 2tbsp
Tahini - 2tbsp
Lemon juice - 2tbsp
Red wine vinegar -1tsp
Sumac - 1tsp
Dried Mint - 1tsp
Garlic - 1 clove minced
Salt and Pepper - to taste
Method:
- Make the Dressing: Mix all the ingredients in a small bowl. Add 1-2tbsp water to get the desired consistency. Recipe makes quite a bit of dressing and it tastes great on falafel or with any middle eastern inspired dishes.
- Make the Salad: Toss all the ingredients gently and top with the creamy dressing. Enjoy!!