Spicy Roasted Chickpea salad

Eat yourself healthy and beautiful

As mentioned before, beans and legumes are absolutely one of my favourite things to eat, and especially chickpeas are high on the list. Not only are they incredibly tasty in many different ways (think humous, salads, soups, dough etc.) they are also very, very healthy.

Especially for vegetarians, chickpeas are a great substitute for meat (or eggs when you're vegan). They contain a high content of essential vitamins, like vitamin B12 for instance, which is generally only found in animal products.
Chickpeas are full of iron and vitamin C. Also, vitamin B6 and folic acid are important nutrients that make them so incredibly healthy. Eating chickpeas weekly, in whatever way prepared, retain a right level of iron.

In this salad I roasted the chickpeas for about 15 minutes with some sea salt and a generous amount of chilli powder. It makes them hot and crispy, which goes very well with the sweet and sour taste of the vinaigrette. If you like you can ad some butterhead lettuce in the end. Just divide it on your plate and add the roasted chickpea salad on top. Watch out, this is incredibly good!

SEE THE WHOLE RECIPE

Ingredients:

The salad:

2 cans of chickpeas, drained
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tsp sea salt
250 grams (or one container) little romano tomatoes (or cherry tomatoes)
1 cucumber, pealed
3 spring onions
1 red onion
2 hands of parsley
1 hand of fresh mint leaves

The vinaigrette:

12 tbsp olive oil
4 tbsp of white balsamic
1 small lemon
1 tsp salt
freshly ground pepper

Directions:

• Heat 2 tbsp of olive oil in a flat pan.
• Add the drained chickpeas, the chilli powder and salt. Whisk everything together and turn to medium heat. When you hear them say 'plop' they go too fast, turn the heat low. Just stir once in a while, for 15 minutes, or until you're done withe the rest of the ingredients.
• Divide the tomatoes in four.
• Peal the cucumber, cut in half and divide the parts in four.
• Use a spoon to get rid of the seeds, and cut them in half a cm pieces. Leave them with the tomatoes.
• Chop the spring- and red onion and add them to a bowl.
• Take off the stems of the parsley and cut the mint roughly. Keep the mint apart, but add the parsley to the onions.
• For the vinaigrette, just mix all the ingredients well, and pour it over the onions and herbs.
• Get your roasted chickpeas of the heat, and add them too. 
• Whisk all together, before you transfer it to a bigger plate. 
• Add the tomatoes, cucumber and mint.
• Mix all together, and tadaa!