While I love meat, I try not to eat it all the time. My weekly diet usually involves some meat, some seafood, maybe some poultry and usually a meatless dish, like pasta. My lunches recently usually consist of leftover dinner so I’ve been having much more meat at lunch than I’d normally like. In the past, I used to make meals exclusively for lunch and they were often vegetable or grain-based. Somewhere along the way I got lazy and stopped making meals exclusively for lunch.
I’ve made it a bit of a goal recently to get back on that bandwagon. The other day I was browsing Bon Appétit recipes on Epicurious when I came across this recipe for a Chickpea Salad with lemon, Parmesan and herbs. It sounded like a winner and easy enough to make for lunch.
While the recipe as-is seemed pretty good I decided to switch things up a bit. Right away I thought that roasted red peppers would be a great addition. Then looking in my fridge I realized that I didn’t have any basil or parsley. And I wasn’t going out to get some. But then I looked in my freezer and found some basil.
The resulting salad was really simple and delicious. It works well as a side dish or on it’s own as a salad. This would also be really nice served on top of a bed of couscous or as an addition to a lettuce-based salad.
Hopefully over the next few weeks I’ll do a few more grain or legume-based lunch salads. My body is definitely telling me to feed it some healthy goodness. I will listen.
Chickpea Salad
1 15-to 15 1/2-ounce can chickpeas (garbanzo beans), rinsed, drained
1 roasted red pepper, chopped (approx. 1/2 cup)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
1 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
4 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 small garlic clove, pressed
1/3 cup (packed) freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Coarse kosher salt
preparation
Combine rinsed and drained chickpeas, chopped roasted red pepper, chopped fresh basil, fresh lemon juice, extra-virgin olive oil, and garlic clove in medium bowl. Add grated Parmesan cheese and toss to mix thoroughly. Season salad to taste with coarse kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.
(Adapted from Bon Appétit)
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This looks delicious.
I love salads like this. Except I also eat them for dinner, so lunch leftovers are still perfect.
Thanks for the awesome recipe!! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve made this for my family and how much we love it!! It’s a great summer side dish with anything from the grill!
Glad you like it. It’s a great one to have on your roster.