I’m a fan of celebrity chef Richard Blais. I’ve been to his restaurant Juniper and Ivy in San Diego and his fast casual restaurant Crack Shack in Las Vegas. The food was out of the ordinary and was delicious. I saw him recently on the Rachel Ray Show and wanted to try his recipes. I couldn’t make them all yet but have tried his amazing salsa verde recipe and here is his Tomato Celery Leaf Salad Recipe. I think the only changes I made was to add red onion and the other only change was that I crisped up the chickpeas in the oven and added some powdered hot sauce to them so they didn’t just taste like out of the can. (I’m sure the chef cooks his own chickpeas so they taste better). The dressing I made slightly different because I didn’t have Italian seasoning so I guesstimated my own and added different vinegars. I do note that for most people a cup of celery leaves might mean like from three bunches of celery. I happen to have saved a few celery centers and just got a new one so I had enough. My idea of serving size may differ from your idea of serving size. This makes around 6 small salads that I used as a side dish. It comes out very delicious!

Ingredients for around 6 servings

2 cups cherry tomatoes cut in half (I used a 10oz container)

1 cup celery leaves (for me it was from three bunches)

1 cup garbanzo beans

1 cup toasted walnuts

1/2 cup blue cheese – crumbled or cut in small pieces

1/4 cup fresh basil

1 Tablespoon Italian Seasoning

3 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

3 Tablespoons fruit vinegar (fig, pomegranate and red wine are suggested)

Directions in a big bowl add the tomatoes, celery leaves, garbanzo beans, walnuts, blue cheese and basil.

In small bowl add the Italian seasoning, olive oil and vinegar. Mix well and serve with salad or mix into salad as desired.

My version of the dressing was 1 garlic clove (microplane), 1 teaspoon dry basil, 1 teaspoon dry oregano, 1 teaspoon dried thyme,1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon sugar, 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper, 3 Tablespoons olive oil, 3 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar and one Tablespoon balsamic vinegar. If you want to crisp up your chick peas you need to slightly dress them with canola oil and I sprinkled mine with powdered Frank’s Red Hot sauce. I put them in a 350 degree oven for around 30 minutes.

The salad came out DELICIOUS!

Special THANKS!!! To chef Richard Blais for sharing his DELICIOUS Tomato Celery Leaf Recipe with us.