Chickpea Salad

I decided to make some real food yesterday. I’ve been baking up a storm lately, and decided it was time for something a little more savory. If there is one thing I love it is beans…. yea yea yea go ahead and sing the song, my dad already told me this salad looked like a bowl full of gas…. But for real, I love beans. Bean salads make me pretty pleased! I normally don’t purchase these types of salads, because they are often loaded with oil. I decided it was time to create my own.

I got to chopping some red bell pepper, zuchini, onion, and garlic. Then sauteed them all in some olive oil. Mean while I drained some chickpeas and lentils, and got to working on the dressing.

I added some Penzey’s Spices in the form of Ancho chili pepper to give it a little zip, thyme, and basil. As well as some White balsamic, salt, and pepper. Super yummy dressing! Then I mixed it all together!

Chickpea salad

1 can chickpeas

1/2 cup lentils ( I used already steamed ones)

1 small onion, diced

1 large clove garlic, minced

3/4 cup red bell pepper, chopped (almost 1 large)

3/4 cup zucchini, chopped (about 1 large)

splash of white balsamic

1/8 tsp ancho chili pepper

Sprinkling/to taste basil and thyme

To taste salt and pepper…. I used a few twists (from a mill)

Directions:

First chop all your veggies, then heat 1 TB olive oil in a medium size pan.

Drain chickpeas and lentils.

When veggies are finished cooking, about 5 min combine veggies, chickpeas, lentils.

Mix up the dressing (white balsamic, herbs, salt, pepper) to taste. I just added it to the bowl of mixed veggies, but you could mix it on the side in a separate bowl.

Let sit and marinate for a few hours, then enjoy!