This organic chickpea and black-eyed pea salad is great for summer days that are too hot to cook—when you say, "Don't even look at the stove!" Served cold, it's refreshing. It's terrific with grilled summer foods, such as organic portobello burgers or vegetarian bratwurst.
Although this salad is delicious as a side dish, it's so hearty that it can be the meal's centerpiece. This organic salad is high-protein, so you get plenty of mileage with this meal; you will not be hungry in just two hours!
It's served with hearty whole-grain bread on the side, preferably organic, and baked by a local baker to sop up the vinaigrette.
Ingredients:
2 15 oz. cans of organic chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
2 15 oz. cans organic black-eyed peas
2 15 oz. cans organic artichoke hearts
Four large organic tomatoes
½ large organic onion
Six large fresh organic garlic cloves
¼ cup organic olive oil
½ cup organic balsamic vinegar
A few pinches of dried organic parsley
Fresh ground salt and pepper to taste
Drain chickpeas and black-eyed peas and dump them into a large bowl. Chop artichoke hearts (into eighths if they're whole or into quarters if they're already halved), chop tomatoes, and dice onion; dump the artichokes, tomatoes, and onion into the bowl. Crush garlic gloves with a garlic press and add them to the luscious pile of goodies.
Whip olive oil and balsamic vinegar in a smaller bowl, then pour over the pile. Your mouth should be watering now. Add a few generous pinches of parsley, then salt and pepper to taste. Stir all the ingredients thoroughly with a large spoon to distribute them evenly and coat them with vinaigrette.
You can increase the balsamic vinegar to olive oil ratio if you like the vinaigrette to taste more tangy, and you can increase the overall amount of oil and vinegar if you want the salad to be more juicy.
You can also experiment with which vinegar flavor you like best— ed wine or raspberry balsamic vinegar tastes excellent in this dish.
You can either add the fresh ground salt and pepper to the oil and vinegar mixture, sprinkle them on the ingredients before stirring, or both.
Adding fresh chopped basil—or a fresh organic herb you think would harmonize well with this dish—is also an option. To add more color, you can substitute organic scallions (green onions) for the diced onions.
The trick to delicious recipes is to cook to your taste, not necessarily by following the recipe verbatim. Besides, how fun would cooking be if you couldn't sample the dishes while eating them?
This dish, which serves six or more, also works great for summer pitch-ins, especially if you're vegan. You can't always count on non-dairy, high-protein dishes at such gatherings, but you can depend on this hearty summer salad!
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