Foodie Corner
Carissa Serink of domesticdreamboat.com was kind enough to share her recipe for a splendid summer salad with us. It’s a perfect dish to serve as a lunch entree or as a side with some cold chicken or sandwiches while sitting on a blanket listening to an evening concert in the park.
Carissa says:
Here’s another use-up-the-veggies-before-the-next-CSA-delivery recipe. It’s great, because people on many special diets can enjoy it: it’s vegetarian, gluten free, doesn’t have any major allergens and tasty enough that meat-lovers will love it too!
Since this recipe doesn’t need to be cooked, chopping is the extent of the work you will be doing. You will need to chop up a cucumber, red onion, tomatoes, bell pepper, kalamata olives and herbs. The goal is to get the veggies roughly the same size as the chickpeas. Ideally, the quinoa in the recipe will be leftover from last night’s dinner. If you don’t have any hanging around in your fridge, make sure you start cooking it ahead of time to give it a chance to cool. The chickpeas get rinsed and drained from their cans, and some feta crumbled up.
The salad is dressed in a simple combination of olive oil, lemon juice and red wine vinegar, seasoned with a little salt, pepper, chili flakes and additional dried herbs if you prefer.
Since this salad has veggies, beans (in the form of chickpeas), quinoa and cheese, it is a complete meal in a bowl and doesn’t need anything else. But the nice thing about this salad is that it’s versatile in how it can be served. I most commonly eat it how it is straight out of a bowl. If I have leafy greens hanging around, I’ll serve it on top of them (my favorite is baby spinach). Or if I have leftover pitas or tortillas, I will make wraps with them.
- 2 14oz cans (or a 28oz can if available) chickpeas or garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained
- 1 cup cooked quinoa (see note)
- 1 cucumber, diced (see note)
- 1 small red onion, minced
- 1 bell pepper (color of your choice), stemmed, seeded and diced
- 2 medium tomatoes, cored, seeded and diced
- 1/2 cup kalamata olives, coarsely chopped
- 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
- 2 Tbsp minced fresh oregano (or 1/2 tsp dried)
- 1 Tbsp minced fresh mint (optional)
- 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 2 Tbsp lemon juice
- 1 Tbsp red wine vinegar
- 1/4 tsp red chili flakes
- 1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper
- salt, to taste
- Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl. Can be served immediately, but it tastes best if it sits in the fridge for at least an hour before serving.
- Leftover quinoa works great in this recipe. If you’re making some for another meal, make a little extra to save for this salad.
- If using a garden cucumber (as opposed to an English cuke), peel then cut in half lengthwise and remove seeds with a spoon.
Carissa can also be found on https://twitter.com/DDreamboat