Chickpea and feta salad: fifteen minutes and a packed lunch
A salad that does not wilt. Unlike anything built on lettuce, this one improves after a few hours: the chickpeas drink up the dressing and stop tasting bland, the onion loses its bite, and the feta spreads its salt through the whole bowl. Which is what makes it a lunchbox salad for several days. Three things need doing properly — rinse the chickpeas, dry the cucumber and crumble the feta coarsely, with your fingers.
Your own work in that: 15 min.
- Chopping 12 min
- Dressing 3 min
- Settling 15 min
Step by step
0 / 5 doneRinse the chickpeas
Tip the chickpeas into a sieve and rinse under cold water for a full minute, turning them with your hand, until the water stops foaming. Tinned brine is thick, salty and carries a distinct tinned taste that can take over a whole salad. Leave them to drain 5 minutes.
Ingredients: 800 g tinned chickpeas · 300 g cherry tomatoes · 1 pcs cucumber · ½ pcs red onion · 100 g black olives · 200 g feta · ½ bunch parsley
TipDon't pour the brine away if you bake: aquafaba whips like egg white and replaces it in meringues and vegan mayonnaise.
A minute under water, until it stops foamingChop and dry the vegetables
Halve the tomatoes, cut the cucumber into half-moons and pat them dry with kitchen paper, slice the onion thinly and the olives into rings. The cucumber weeps the most here — two minutes on a towel saves the salad from a puddle at the bottom of the bowl.
TipIf you are packing this for several days, scoop out the watery cucumber seeds with a teaspoon. The outer flesh alone stays crisp far longer.
The cucumber dried before it goes inShake the dressing
In a jar combine the oil, lemon juice, crushed garlic, oregano, mustard, salt and pepper. Screw the lid on and shake 15 seconds. The mustard is there less for flavour than for the emulsion: without it the oil and lemon quickly separate in the bowl.
Ingredients: 5 tbsp olive oil · 1 pcs lemon, juice · 1 clove garlic · 1 tsp dried oregano · ½ tsp mustard · ½ tsp salt · ½ tsp pepper
TipRub the oregano between your fingers before adding it. Dried herbs only release their scent once crushed.
A jar, fifteen seconds, and it holds togetherToss everything but the feta
In a large bowl combine the chickpeas, tomatoes, cucumber, onion, olives and chopped parsley. Pour over the dressing and toss well. Add the feta last, crumbling it coarsely with your fingers — cut into neat cubes it looks artificial, and folded in earlier it disintegrates and turns the salad into white paste.
Feta crumbled by hand, right at the endLet it stand a quarter of an hour
Leave the salad 15 minutes at room temperature. The chickpeas drink the dressing and stop being dry in the middle. Taste and season only now: the feta and olives bring plenty of salt and usually no more is needed.
Ingredients: 5 tbsp olive oil · 1 pcs lemon, juice · 1 clove garlic · 1 tsp dried oregano · ½ tsp mustard · ½ tsp salt · ½ tsp pepper
A quarter hour and the chickpeas drink it in
Before you start
Lunchboxes for several days
It keeps 4 days in the fridge. Add the feta and parsley on the day you eat it and mix the rest in advance — it tastes even better the next day.
More filling
Add cooked bulgur or pearl barley, a cup once cooked. Increase the dressing by half then, since grain takes up more of it than chickpeas do.
From dried chickpeas
250 g dried equals two tins. Soak overnight with a teaspoon of bicarbonate, boil 50 minutes and cool. The flavour is clearly better and the texture firmer.
Vegan version
Cubes of smoked tofu or roasted aubergine in place of the feta. Add half a teaspoon more salt then — the feta was carrying most of it.
