Sizzling Asian Chickpea Salad
Chickpeas Fried in Garlic and Spices on Spinach and Cilantro Leaves
Oct 6, 2009
Salads which have a strong enough personality to perform as a main course are few and far between. Those which also employ the exotic flavours of the east are even thinner on the ground. Therefore, this sizzling Asian chickpea salad recipe is good news and a guaranteed winner for anyone who loves Asian cuisine yet also likes to keep an eye on the calories.
The secret of the success of this dish lies in judging the balance of ingredients, especially, the amount of chickpeas and the quantity of cucumber and spinach in the bed of salad. Too much spinach and the chickpeas are almost forgotten in a forest of green. Too many chickpeas and the salad can be overpowered.
The real finishing touches to the dish are the addition of triangles of grilled golden flatbreads and the pièce de résistance, a generous dollop of natural Greek yoghurt which turns a good recipe into an exceptional one.
Ingredients for Sizzling Asian Chickpea Salad
Chickpea Mixture
- 300g cooked chickpeas
- 2 garlic cloves, sliced
- 1 large tomato, deseeded and diced
- 2 flatbreads (chapati or naan breads would work equally well)
- 125g carton of natural Greek yoghurt
- 1 hot red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp paprika
- ½ tsp cayenne pepper
- ½ tsp turmeric
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- Juice of half a lemon
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp pepper
Spinach Salad
- ½ red onion, sliced
- 125 g fresh baby spinach leaves
- ½ cucumber, peeled and diced
- 2 tbsp fresh coriander leaves
For two people
Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 15 minutes
Preparation for Sizzling Asian Chickpea Salad
- Prepare the salad first by simply tossing all the salad ingredients in a bowl and lay out as a bed on two plates.
- Put 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a frying pan with the sliced garlic, cumin and chillies.
- Heat from cold and cook for 3 minutes over a medium heat.
- Add the chickpeas, cayenne pepper, paprika and turmeric and stir until the chickpeas are coated with the spices. Cook gently for 5 minutes.
- Mix in the tomatoes, season with salt and pepper and squeeze the lemon over the chickpea mixture.
- Cook for a further 2 minutes and remove from the heat.
- Brush the flatbreads with the remaining olive oil and grill on both sides until the flatbreads are puffed up and golden.
- Spoon the chickpea mixture on to the spinach salad beds, cut the grilled flat breads into triangles and arrange half a dozen on each plate and finish with a spoonful of yoghurt on top of the chickpeas.
Serve with a small bowl filled with the remaining grilled flatbread triangles and another with the rest of the Greek yoghurt (the flatbread triangles dipped into the yoghurt are a delicious accompaniment).
Cook’s Tip: If using the simple flatbread recipe add 1 teaspoon of curry powder at the same time as the salt is added and roll the flatbread dough to a thickness of around ¼ cm.
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