GoodFor
Mediterranean Salad
This Mediterranean salad is one of those recipes that not only looks festive, it’s also a delicious and very healthy salad your guests will appreciate as we can often have a lot of ‘sweet treat’ foods over Christmas time. The Israeli couscous and chickpeas give a great, light base to this dish and the cherry tomatoes just burst in your mouth, all tied together with a tangy yogurt dressing.
Serves 4-6 as a side or 2-3 as a main
Ingredients:
Yogurt dressing:
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1/4 cup olive oil*
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp sumac
1/2 tsp dried mint
1 clove garlic, crushed
1/4 tsp salt
Salad:
100g dried chickpeas
2 tbsp olive oil*
1 medium red onion, sliced finely
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 cup Israeli couscous
1 1/2 cups water
Salt & cracked black pepper
1 cup cherry tomatoes
3 handfuls of fresh rocket
1/3 cup chopped currants or 6 chopped dried figs
1/3 cup finely chopped parsley
Method:
Soak the dried chickpeas in water and leave overnight. The chickpeas should double in size. Rinse and drain the chickpeas. Add into a medium pot with water covering the chickpeas. Add in 1/2 tsp of salt, cover and cook for 15 minutes until soft.
In a medium-sized pot add the couscous, 1/2 tsp salt and 1 1/2 cups of water. Cover and cook on low for 12-15 minutes until soft. Drain and wash with cold water and set aside.
Heat a large skillet over medium heat with 2 tbsp olive oil and add in the sliced onion to cook for 6 minutes. Add in the chickpeas you’ve prepped earlier, oregano, cumin, 3/4 tsp salt and pepper. Cook for 5 minutes until chickpeas are crispy and onion is soft. Set aside.
To make the yogurt dressing. Whisk together all ingredients until smooth and set aside in the fridge.
Cut the cherry tomatoes into quarters.
Assemble all ingredients in the bowl and pour over yogurt dressing right before serving.
Enjoy!
Additional goodies you could add:
– Sliced almonds or pumpkin seeds
– Sliced olives
*Item not available online but can be found in your local GoodFor store.
This recipe was contributed by Sarah aka @thesaarahproject.
