This recipe is adapted from Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi. Spiced Chickpea and Vegetable Salad ….well sort of.  I changed it so much I’m not sure……The short story is that I kept the seasons for the chickpeas from their recipe.

The long story is…….

Instead of using dried chickpeas like in the recipe I used low sodium Canned Chickpeas because in my area dried beans are often old and an old bean never gets tender (this happens about 50% of the time). I’ve found that the low sodium canned beans don’t have that strong canned taste like regular canned beans so they aren’t the best but they are ok I do note the farmers market dried beans are the best and come out creamy and very sweet but often I miss small rocks that are mixed in and I FORKING HATE small rocks in my beans and that is the reason I am partial to canned low sodium beans.

I had this very sweet tasting purple daikon radish that I thought would be great with the cucumbers I had. I didn’t have the red bell pepper or the tomatoes to make the original recipe so I left them out. I thought the salad needed another element so I added chopped apple for balance and texture.

Other changes I made were that I like to use less oil and increase the lemon juice. I made a home made cheese that came out similar to fresh feta cheese and I thought it embellished the salad well. You might like to garnish yours with a little feta cheese.

Ingredients for 8 servings

2 English cucumbers diced

1 1/2 cup radish diced (I used sweet giant purple daikon)

2 small apples pealed and diced

1/2 sweet onion diced

1/2 cup parsly chopped

15oz can reduced sodium chickpeas drained and rinsed well

1 teaspoon cardamon

1 1/2 teaspoon allspice

1 teaspoon cumin

2 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1/4 teaspoon sea salt or kosher salt

1 lemon zest and juice

3 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 garlic clove minced

1 1/2 Tablespoons sherry vinegar

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Directions set your oven to 350 degrees F

Combine your cucumber, radish, onion, apple and parsley in a big bowl and set to the side.

In a medium sized bowl toss your chickpeas with 2 Tablespoons of oil, cardamon, allspice, cumin, and the 1/4 teaspoon salt. Get a sheet pan and place chickpea mixture on a baking sheet and toast the chickpeas for about 25 minutes till they get a slight crispness to them. Set to the side.

Either mix up the remaining ingredients in a small bowl and combine everything or keep the chickpeas on the side and garnish like croutons to keep the chickpeas crisper.

Serve with feta cheese if desired.  I thought the flavors were best after a couple days.