The flavour of food made from scratch never ceases to amaze me. I’ve been on a big “from scratch” kick ever since I wrapped up the recipes for my book; thankfully, it’s no longer a battle to motivate myself in the kitchen now that I’m not in there for 12 hours a day. I’m making things like the amazing Homemade Almond Milk, ice cream (hopefully coming soon), and also taking the time to do some weekend meal prep again. Getting back to the basics with food always feels so good. Plus, it helps save a little moula too!
Dried beans are one of those foods that are so easy to prepare from scratch, but it’s one of the first things that I let slide on when I’m busy. I’m not opposed to using canned beans – they are great for quick meals – but I never regret cooking them from scratch. When I first cooked chickpeas a few years ago, I was amazed by how much the beans grow when soaked overnight. They get all plump and beautiful, much like soaked almonds. And they just taste so much better than canned beans, not to mention I find they digest easier too. I’ve been known to eat a whole bowl of fresh cooked chickpeas with just a sprinkle of Herbamare and pepper. Sometimes simple just can’t be beat.
One of the things I struggle with when it comes to blogging is finding a balance with the recipes that I share. It’s a constant balancing act not to feature too much of this or too much of that. Not to share overly complicated recipes, but also not overly easy or obvious recipes. To share unique recipes, without making them alien or intimidating. It’s easy to overthink things, but when I remind myself to simply share food that I truly LOVE to eat on a regular basis, I hope it all falls into place. This is one of those recipes.
I’ve been on a huge lime + cilantro + cumin kick the past few weeks, but I promise this is the last one for a while. Cilantro and cumin isn’t everyone’s cup of tea (or so I’ve heard many times), so I tried a version of this recipe with parsley and I’m happy to report that it worked really well in place of cilantro. I imagine other herbs would work too. You can change up the spices if you’d like too. Who knows, maybe you will come out with your very own recipe at the end of it all. Even though the recipes I share are quite specific in their measurements, don’t be afraid to play around with them. Cooking is more of an art than a science and it’s open to interpretation on so many levels. When I first started to cook I was really scared to modify ingredients in recipes, but there’s a freedom that comes with practice. That’s when cooking really gets fun. Trust yourself.
I made this recipe for a get together last week. Whenever we have a potluck, I’m usually the “salad girl” and often the “vegan-but-you-won’t-believe-it dessert girl”. I’m known for my hearty, grain and bean based salads virtually everywhere I go. More often than not, I’m fighting my friends and family for the leftovers! This recipe received a lot of great feedback. It’s inspired by a blog favourite from a few years back; some of you might remember the cilantro lime chickpea salad. If you’ve never had minced spinach in a salad before, it’s a sneaky way to pack in a ton of greens into a salad without even realizing it. Would you believe there is a whole bag of spinach hiding in there plus over a cup of fresh herbs? It makes this high-protein recipe full of green power. Not to mention, the vitamin C in the lime juice helps with iron absorption from the iron-rich chickpeas and spinach. In fact, just 1 serving of this salad contains 45% of your daily iron requirement. Yee-haw.
I added cucumber to my most recent batch, but I wouldn’t recommend it. The salt in the dressing made the cucumber release too much water and it was a watery mess on the bottom, which diluted the flavours. Boo, hiss. If you do add extra veggies, I suggest adding them after the fact.
I had a couple heirloom tomatoes kicking around and I thought they’d make a pretty base for the salad. However, it’s probably not the most practical serving suggestion. For more staying power, serve it on top of a bed of grains. It’s also great stuffed into a pita and paired with my favourite Lemon Tahini Dressing. The options are endless…
Eat Your Greens Chickpea Medley
Yield
6
Soak time
720
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
Adapted from Cilantro Lime Chickpea Salad which was originally adapted from Heather’s Dish.
Ingredients
For the chickpea medley
- 2 cups dried/uncooked chickpeas (makes 5 1/2-6 cups cooked)
- 1 (5-ounce) package baby spinach
- 1 1/2 cups cilantro, large stems removed (or parsley)
- 3/4 cup red onion, chopped finely
For the dressing
- 1/4 cup fresh lime juice2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil2 garlic cloves, minced1 tsp ground cumin1 tsp maple syrup (or other liquid sweetener), or more to taste3/4 tsp fine sea salt + ground pepper, or to taste
Directions
- To cook chickpeas: Soak 2 cups dried chickpeas in a large bowl of water overnight (I find around 12 hours or a bit longer is ideal). Soaking beans makes them digest easier and it also cuts down on cooking time. Drain and rinse the beans in the morning and add to a large pot of water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium, and simmer, uncovered, until fork tender, about 40 minutes (this will vary depending on how fresh your dried beans are). Feel free to set the timer, walk away, and go about your business!
- Rinse and drain the spinach and cilantro (or parsley). Spin until dry in a salad spinner.
- In a food processor, add the spinach and cilantro and pulse until chopped very small. You can do this in a couple batches if your processor is smaller. Add the processed spinach and cilantro, drained cooked chickpeas, and chopped onion into a large bowl and stir.
- In a small jar, whisk together the lime juice, olive oil, minced garlic, cumin, maple syrup, and salt.
- Pour the dressing on top of the spinach chickpea mixture and stir well. Let stand for about 10 minutes (or overnight) to let the flavours develop. Will keep for a few days, or longer, in the fridge.
Angela, you knocked it out of the park again! Love this! Added a serrano chile to the dressing. Accidentally doubled the amount of greens so mixing with cool rice and some additional dressing.
I tried this tonight and it was great! I’m one of those weird cilantro-haters, so I used parsley instead. Oh, and I had run out of spinach so I ended up using baby kale and both of the subs worked out great. The dressing is really what makes it. When my family said they liked it, I said, “thanks this is Angela’s” – they know who you are! :)
Beautiful photography, too! I love how you arranged the red and yellow tomatoes and I tried to replicate that when serving. I served it over greens with quinoa. I love the simple recipes, which are so great on a summer day when you want to spent time outdoors AND have quality, delicious food, too. Thanks for helping to make that happen!
Just made this, amazing. So fresh tasting, perfect summer dish. Thanks, Angela!
The flavors in this recipe were way different than anything that I had ever experimented with regarding chickpeas. I didn’t put the cucumber in until the end, and I think it made all the difference. Overall, the recipe was very abnosome.
I just about made this with the cucumbers (I have a bazillion of them right now) to take to a potluck Sunday, but after seeing the thing about the salt + cukes…decided not to. It was ironic – I was actually in the middle of cooking up some chickpeas for something else when I first saw this post. I like to make my beans in a slow-cooker or rice-cooker, especially because I’m out of the house for 10 hours every day. I just set it and go – don’t even need to soak overnight if I don’t want to.
Iron has been on my mind a lot lately, and I found some of the info about iron here in contrast to what I’ve learned other places. I know that spinach contains a lot of iron, but also it has a lot of calcium and oxalates – and both of those “bind up” the iron and make it unavailable for the body to absorb…so they say. Any thoughts about this? I constantly have low iron and am hopeful to find some better way to get iron to STAY inside me beside supplements.
Love love love! I adore that this packs so many greens in, great way to sneak them past my guy : )
Just FYI I love the cumin+cilantro+lime combo. That Cilantro Lime Chickpea salad blew my mind!
At times I freeze both cooked garbanzos and also ones that only have been soaked overnight. The cooked beans are ready for hummus or salads, and the soaked ones go into soups and stews, so they continue cooking. Important note is to label whether they’re soaked or cooked! No way to tell until they’re thawed.
America’s Test Kitchen recommends “brining” the beans by soaking them with lots of salt overnight. They say this slightly flavors the beans (this is true) and also keeps them more intact with something to do with osmosis and salt water penetrating the soaking bean. I have never noticed a difference with the second reason for brining, however. Some cookbooks recommend cooking the beans in the soaking water, otherwise you might be pouring valuable enzymes down the drain. I have done this method, too, and noticed no effect in “digestibility,” though I’ve been vegan for so many years it’s hard to tell what “affects” my digestion!
This looks & sounds delicious – thank you for the recipe! I’d like to swap the cilantro for basil. I looked through the comments to see if anyone else had this idea, but there are a lot of comments! :-) Do you have an idea of what I should swap for the cumin to go with basil? Or do you think cumin would be ok? I’m thinking they might compete too much. Thank you!! I love all your recipes. YUM.
What about oregano and thyme?
The new ads on this site are extremely annoying! I was just on the other day and it was fine but now it’s irritating. I really love this site but if the ads continue to be a problem, I won’t be coming back too often :(
Hey Christina, Sorry to hear that! Which ads are you referring to? I can’t see all of the ads that run in different parts, so your help is greatly appreciated.
It’s gone today, thank heaven! I’m on an iPad and it was one of those annoying ones that pop up on the bottom and only go away when your scrolling. Drives me nuts! haha. I can’t remember what the ad was for but when I first tried to come onto the site it took over the whole page and did that thing where you have to click “Go To My Site”. I think it was some sort of higher end women’s clothing website.
agh, that shouldn’t be happening at all! We thought we had all those types of ads blocked. grrr. Those are NOT the ads I want on my site. Thank you so much for letting me know. If it happens again, please let me know the company name + URL (or if you are feeling really motivated take a screen shot and email it to press[at]ohsheglows[dot]com It’s almost impossible to block specific ads unless we have a name and URL because we use about 4 different ad networks.
thanks so much for your help!
Ugh, it’s showing up right now. It’s from Ulta beauty.
www.ultabeautylols.com
Thank you! We just blocked it :) let me know if anything else “pops” up, lol
Thank you! Means a lot to me that you not only responded but solved the issue as well. I’ll be sure and let you know of any similar ads that become an issue. Best of luck with your cook book. Can’t wait to go out and get my own copy!
On a happier note though, I just made your chilled double chocolate torte the other and I cannot stop eating it! Soooo good.
This looks lovely- I’m going to try it right away. I wouldn’t leave out the cucumbers thought, especially not with my CSA inundating me with them. You can coarsely chop the cucumbers, salt them, and let them sit in a colander for a while to encourage them to release some water before mixing them in the recipe.
Tha looks yummy! I love cilantro and cumin! I’m definitely making that one!
I also wanted to ask you, where did you buy those “ball” mason jars ? I live in Vancouver and I’ve been looking for those forever…
this one : http://ohsheglows.com/2012/09/26/slow-cooker-naked-apple-butter/
and also the bottle like that : http://ohsheglows.com/2013/01/24/my-favourite-homemade-almond-milk-step-by-step-photos/
Thanks a lot!
Hey Michelle, I think the apple butter Ball jar is from an antique market and the milk jar is from Crate & Barrel. Hope this helps!
Amazing!!!!!!! I just finished making this! Didn’t have spinach, used kale instead….. O.M.G! I’ve died and gone to foodie heaven. Thank YOU!
This is one of my favorite recipes and I’ve turned so many people on to it and to your website. The pictures are stunning! I usually eat this on brown rice, but tonight since I had an heirloom tomato, I had it exactly as pictured. YUM!! Thank you!!
Hi Angela – I’ve been “lurking” for a few months, mostly admiring your spectacular photography and food styling. I finally dived in and actually tried a few recipes and I’m so glad I did! I made the almond butter cups and this gorgeous summer salad (despite it being winter for me). The ABCs were a giant hit at work :) The chickpea salad was well worth making from scratch and the seasoning absolutely spot on. Thankyou – yours is now officially my fave food blog!
I’m so happy to hear this – thanks for letting me know!
This look so delicious. I bookmarked this recipe
i love it! so easy…..
I made this for a music in the park picnic last night. Everyone loved it! I served as in the picture along with Wasa crackers. Thanks!
If you want to add the cucumbers to the salad you could salt them the night before (while you soak the beans) and leave them to drain. Rinse before adding to the salad.