Hello! 
For this post, I will be describing the detailed recipe of "Chickpea Salad" from my latest healthy food vlog. Watch my youtube video for a better sense of how I make one modern and one traditional dish with several traditional winter staples from Turkish cuisine! 

For the recipe of "Traditional Turkish Green Lentil Soup with Erişte" head over to this post.

Let me know in the comments, what kind of recipes would you like to see here and my Youtube channel.

chickpea salad, my modern take 

This is a perfect main dish for lunch or a side dish for dinner. It is filling and hearty. You can add whatever fresh produce you have in the fridge. I always make my salads based on what I have which leads to several different versions of the same recipe. This has nothing to do with me not liking to follow a recipe to a T. Promise.

The must-have elements for this type legume or grain salads are always fresh greens, juicy produce like cucumbers or tomatoes, and some sweet produce like an apple or a carrot, or both. And a sour and sweet dressing. If I didn't use both a carrot and apple, I'd add some pomegranate sauce into the dressing for sweetness.

I personally don't like raw onions whether it's regular or green. But if you like them, apparently they go well with these type of salads. I also chopped some scallions for my parents. So keep that in mind.

The vlog starts off with my morning routine a.k.a. coffee and breakfast, as usual. 



ingredients

1 bowl of chickpeas, soak them overnight and the next morning, boil them for half an hour.
1 medium cucumber, julienned
1 apple, julienned
1 medium carrot, grated
1 green pepper, finely chopped (or any type of pepper of your choosing)
1 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves, finely chopped
half of an iceberg lettuce or head butter lettuce, roughly chopped
a small bunch of scallions, if you prefer, chopped
fresh mint, if available

for the dressing,

1 tsp dried mint
1 tsp sumac
1/2 tsp black pepper
juice of one lemon
1/4 cup olive oil
salt



method

for the case of chickpeas,

you can use canned chickpeas, however, soaking them overnight and boiling them is always better. you can also soak all the chickpeas you have overnight, drain and rinse them the next morning and then freeze to keep them ready for the future. you can do this for any type of grains and legumes.

boil the soaked chickpeas, drain, rinse and set them aside.

the method is simple, you can julienne, or roughly chop or dice everything. that is entirely up to your choosing. this time I julienned most of the things.

combine everything and put the chickpeas last.

for the case of dressing,

combine everything, you can add more black pepper or more mint.

pour the dressing an hour before serving the salad, let the chickpeas absorb the lemon juice.