When I'm Hungry, I Make This🥗 Mediterranean Chickpea Salad - What I Eat for Lunch

#worklunch #chickpeasalad #healthysalad
When I'm Hungry, I Make This🥗 Mediterranean Chickpea Salad: What I Eat for Lunch

When I'm hungry and tired after work, this is the salad I reach for 🥗 Chickpeas, crunchy vegetables, avocado and toasted walnuts, with a bright lemon and maple dressing, finished with a piece of feta. The secret is simple: I make the base once, keep it undressed in the fridge, and the dressing waits on the side. So whenever you're hungry, something fresh is already there, and it never turns soggy.

🥗 INGREDIENTS
For the base:
1 1/4 cups (200 g) cooked chickpeas, canned is fine
1 tomato
1 cucumber
1 bell pepper, any color
1 avocado
A little lemon juice for the avocado
1 red onion
1/4 cup (10 g) fresh parsley
1/4 cup (25 g) walnuts
Feta cheese, to serve

For the dressing:
2 tbsp (30 ml) olive oil
1 tbsp (15 ml) maple syrup
1 tbsp (15 ml) lemon juice
Salt, to taste
Sweet paprika, to taste
Dried garlic and black pepper, to taste

👩‍🍳 METHOD
1. Drain the chickpeas, rinse them under cold water and set them aside to dry. Dry chickpeas won't water down the dressing later.
2. Dice the tomato into small cubes and pat off the extra moisture with a paper towel. This small step keeps the base crisp in the fridge.
3. Dice the cucumber and the bell pepper the same size, so every spoonful gets a bit of everything.
4. Dice the avocado and squeeze a little lemon juice over it, so it keeps its fresh green color.
5. Finely chop the red onion and the parsley, leaves and tender stems, and add them to the bowl.
6. The base is ready. In this form it keeps in a closed container in the fridge for a few days, undressed.
7. Add the dried chickpeas. Toast the walnuts lightly in a dry pan until they smell warm and nutty, chop them and add them too. Mix well from the bottom up.
8. For the dressing, stir together the olive oil, maple syrup, lemon juice, salt, sweet paprika, dried garlic and black pepper. Keep it in a separate jar.
9. Dress the salad right before serving. Finish with a sprinkle of walnuts and a piece of feta.

💡 TIPS
• One bowl of base, a different plate every day: add a boiled egg, some leftover chicken or a spoon of hummus on the side.
• Raw onion too sharp for you? Cut it finer, or let it sit in a little lemon juice first.
• Watch the walnuts closely while toasting, they go from golden to too dark in seconds.
• No lemon at home? Lime works the same way for the avocado and the dressing.

🌿 WHAT THESE INGREDIENTS BRING
Chickpeas bring plant protein and fiber together, so a bowl of vegetables becomes a real meal that keeps you full. Bell pepper is one of the richest vegetable sources of vitamin C, and vitamin C helps your body absorb the iron from plant foods like chickpeas, so these two are a smart pair. Avocado and olive oil bring mostly unsaturated fats, the same kind found in the Mediterranean kitchen. Walnuts are one of the best plant sources of ALA, a plant omega-3 fat. The purple of red onion comes from anthocyanins, the same natural pigments as in blueberries and red cabbage. And the lemon keeps everything bright, fresh and looking good in the fridge.

💬 Where are you watching from? And what do you like to add to a chickpea salad: olives, corn, radishes? Rate this salad from 1 to 10 in the comments ⭐

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