This amazing dish can be served as a main course, a side dish for meat or a side salad. In case you would like to prepare some meat to go with this salad, you dont have to make anything special. Poached chicken breast that I used were perfect as chickpeas (Garbanzo beans) have quite distinctive taste.Chickpeas are an excellent natural source of zinc and copper, two minerals that are essential for the development and function of immune cells.This make chikpeas perfect for autumn and winter to fight off colds and flu. Like other legumes, chickpeas are loaded with fiber and protein, both of which help increase satiety.As smaller amount can make you feel full, chickpeas are often use in reducing diets.
Ingredients (for 3-4 persons):
– 140g of dehydrated chickpeas (you can use canned chickpeas if you want to speed up the process )
– 70g of black olives,1 red onion (middle sized),
– 1 clove of garlic
– small branch of rosemary
– a bit of salt
– juice from one lemon
– 2 table spoons of tamari
– 3 table spoons of extra virgin olive oil
– parsley (can be fresh or frozen)
+ if you prefer spicy food you can add fresh chilli or grounded black or green pepper
Method:
1. Soak the chickpeas in the cold water one night before you want to serve the salad.
2. In the morning, strain off the water and cook the chickpeas according to the instructions on the package.The time of cooking can differ with variants of the beans. In my case chikpeas were boiled for 2 hours. Add a branch of a rosemary and a bit of salt (half of a tea spoon) into the water.
3. While beans are being cooked and your kitchen is full of lovely smell of rosemary, you can finely cut the red onion and black olives.Add these with the lemon juice, tamari and olive oil to a bwl. Grate in the clove of garlic and chopped parsley leaves (+ chilli and black pepper if you would like to)
4. When chickpeas are tender, strain them and transfer into the bowl with onion-olives mixture. Give it a good stir. Cover the bowl for 10 minutes and let cool for a bit. This allows all flavours to marinate the chickpeas.
