Curry Chickpea Salad
Time:
Active Prep time: 30 minutes + 5 minutes for hydrating and cooking chickpeas
Cook time: 6 minutes
Total time: 45 minutes, but allow at least 9 hours for chickpeas to hydrate and cook. I don't recommend using canned chickpeas, as they have an unpleasant flavour and mushy texture.
Serves 4 as a light main.
Ingredients:
Salad:
- 2 cups dried chickpeas
- 300 grams cherry tomatoes, or about one package
- 1/2 cup toasted peanuts
- 1 package pea sprouts, with most of stems removed
- 1/4 large red onion
- 1 generous handful of cilantro
Dressing
- 1/2 tbsp cumin seeds
- 1/2 tbsp coriander seeds
- 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
- 1/2 tsp cloves
- 1/4 tsp black peppercorns
- 1/8 tsp cinnamon
- pinch nutmeg
- pinch cardamom pods
- 1 tsp turmeric powder
- 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 lemons, juice of
- 1/4 cup peanut oil or other neutral oil (this is a WAG)
Directions:
The day before, place a handful of chickpeas in a bowl with a pinch of salt and cover generously with water. Alternatively, cover chickpeas with boiling water 8 hours in advance. Chickpeas take about an hour of simmering to cook after soaking.
First, cook chickpeas by placing in a medium sized pot with water and salt, brind to boil, and simmer for one hour.
Second, toast peanuts for 5 minutes in a 350 degree oven. This step is optional if you bought toasted peanuts, but helps with the flavour and crunchiness
Chop tomatoes, cilantro, and pea shoots. Finely dice red onion.
Heat small pan on stove. When it is hot, add cumin, coriander, mustard, cloves, cardamom pods, and black peppercorns. Keep on stove until seeds start to pop, about 5 minutes. Add cinnamon and nutmeg, wait 30 seconds, then transfer to spice grinder. Grind into fine powder, and add turmeric and cayenne pepper. If you don't have whole spices, you can substitute powdered, but skip the roasting step.
Combine salt, spice mixture, and lemon juice. Taste and adjust seasonings if necessary. Emulsify with peanut oil.
Add dressing to chickpeas in large bowl and mix well. Then add the rest of the ingredients and serve.Comments
1) If you are using Garam Masala, you can substitute it for all the spices except turmeric, and cayenne.
2) I think lime juice might be better here.
3) Also, this recipe calls for too much oil. I think 2 tbsp would be better, but if you do this, the vinaigrette will not emulsify. But that’s okay. Just put the oil on first and then the lemon/lime juice with the spices.