I wish that these pictures did this salad justice. It is so delicious, I couldn't stop myself from eating it - sadly, neither could anyone else in my family!
I made this on the weekend, I prepped a large bowl of it and though, "I am going to be eating this for lunch all week" and I couldn't wait. I love having easy good-for-me lunches and all the flavors of this recipe were just what I was craving.
So I made it Saturday afternoon, It was the last of the food that I was making / prepping and I was so full from eating everything else I had been making all day, I just had a few bites. It was really good! and I chuckled to myself in my head, "this is going to be SO Extra good as the flavors develop during the week".
Sunday after church, I head to the fridge to have a few bites while I am starting dinner. (You know, because every person in the world comes home from church - Starving - I am no different)
And it was GONE!
Gone!
And not like it had completely disappered gone, but that horrible gone, where someone leaves one olive and two slices of cucumber and some sauce in the container to Mock You! and Let you know that your salad, is at least Gone for you.
Now the story actually gets a little ugly here, because I was so upset that it was gone and now instead of having yummy lunches all week, I wasn't even going to get to enjoy a bowl of it at all.
There were some really unpleasant hungry person things said about people who eat entire week's worth of salads. I won't go there, this is suppose to be a family blog.
So Yeah, you should make this salad. And then, you should hide it in the the back of your fridge, behind the giant jar of pickles or something, because even though you think you family isn't going to love a salad that is all veggies, you don't want to know the heartbreak when you find out that you are wrong.
Ingredients:
Salad:
Two 15-ounce cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1/4 cup chopped Italian parsley
2/3 cup chopped bell pepper (mix red/yellow/orange)
1/2 purple onion, sliced (I always cut mine into slices because then people can pick them out)
3/4 cup halved grape tomatoes
3 green onions, sliced
12 kalamata olives, sliced in half (These can be expensive so feel free to use black olives or green if you prefer)
1/3 cup crumbled feta cheese
Dressing:
4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons plain yogurt
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 small garlic clove, minced
1/4 teaspoon cumin
salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions:
In a large bowl, toss together the salad ingredients.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the dressing ingredients. Drizzle the dressing over the salad and toss. Transfer to a serving bowl and drizzle juices on top.
Refrigerate until ready to serve.
** just a tip, but if you want it to look really pretty when you are serving, put the feta on top and then toss it after. Mine crumbled all over and while it tastes amazing, it could have looked extra beautiful with that one step.
