This fresh tasting salad was today's lunch, and very nice it was too. The recipe comes from "Lunchbox - Bright Ideas for Movable Feasts", by Amanda Grant (unfortunately, now out of print). This isn't a book of kiddies lunchbox ideas, although some of the recipes will certainly interest kids, its crammed full of grown-up flavour combinations and textures. For example, "Pear, Pecan, Pepper and Pecorino Salad", "Humus with Roasted Aubergine, Lemon and Roasted Peppers in Pita", or "Roquefort, French bean and Hazelnut Salad". Don't they sound yummy?
This salad is perfect for me. I adore caramelised onions and chickpeas and I'm quite fond of Feta too. The only thing I was uncertain of was the mint - I'm still not sure that I approve of mint in savoury stuff, but this was really refreshing and seemed to tie the sweet onions, nutty chickpeas and salty feta together. The addition of red chilli was fantastic; it added a nice kick which was tempered by the feta. Especially nice when the chilli clumped together to give a searingly hot mouthful! A very, very yummy salad. So yummy that I ate half in one sitting. Whoops!
Caramelised Onions, Chickpeas, Feta and Mint
Serves 4
3 tbsp olive oil
1 red chilli, seeded and diced
2 red onions, peeled and sliced
4 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
2 tsp soft brown sugar
75ml / 5 tbsp red wine vinegar
200g Feta cheese, crumbled
2 x 400g cans chick peas, drained
a handful of fresh mint leaves
sea salt flakes and ground black pepper
Heat the oil in a saucepan. Add the chilli, onions, garlid and sugar and cook very gently for 15 minutes, stirring frequently to prevent the onions from sticking. Add the vinegar, bring to the boil and cook for about 2 minutes until the vinegar has evaporated. Add all of the remaining ingredients, mix well and leave to stand for 15 minutes. Season and serve or chill until needed.
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yum! i'm going to make this. i love mint in savory dishes. mint pesto is one of my favorite things.
1. Posted by athena on November 19, 2007
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To me, mint is a sweet flavour. Peppermint candies, mint choc chip ice-cream, peppermint creams at Christmas... I'll admit that it did taste very nice in this salad though. Hope you enjoy it, Athena!
2. Posted by Angela on November 19, 2007
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Hey! i didn't get to hear about this one!? Pesto and chickpeas AND cheese? :D
Stop it. Or else i'll just get hungry :(
3. Posted by Poz on November 19, 2007