Beginning the week with a power packed recipe that screams "HEALTHY" from the rooftops! Presenting the Mediterranean Chickpea Salad with Amaranth. A simple salad recipe under 30 minutes that uses fresh plant based ingredients, herbs, olives and a flavourful light dressing with olive oil.
Some Benefits of the Mediterranean Chickpea Salad with Amaranth
- Excellent for weight watchers
- Clean Eating Recipe
- High Protein
- No heavy salad dressing
- Seasonal and local ingredients
- Diabetic Friendly
- Gluten Free, Vegan and Dairy Free
You can carry this salad at work (dressing separately) and / or this could be an early dinner option too especially during weekdays. You can plan and prep for this salad a day ahead and store the ingredients plus dressing in your refrigerator. Trust me, this is so much better than ordering take out.
The Mediterranean Diet is considered extremely healthy as it includes plant based foods, legumes, nuts, olive oil, herbs and spices that benefits the whole body. Dairy products like feta cheese is very common, especially in salads. However, for this particular recipe, I have avoided the same and kept it Dairy Free too.
For this recipe, I have used Indian Superfood - Amaranth or Rajgira. The ingredient is both Gluten Free and Vegan. I have soaked the amaranth seeds in water, cooked them and added to the recipe. It is similar to how you may use Quinoa.
The Mediterranean Chickpea Salad is one of the cleverest way to include Amaranth grains into your diet, which otherwise is usually labelled as "only for fasting". It has major health benefits and is the Indian Quinoa (as I call it). The grain, unlike Quinoa is less expensive too.
How to Cook Amaranth or Rajgira
- Soak Amaranth Grains (Rajgira) (1/2 cup in 1 cup water) for atleast 30 mins.
- Drain the water, add fresh water (1 cup) and cook this over the stove top for atleast 10 minutes or until it cooks well. Add salt while cooking the grains.
- Now drain the cooked amaranth using a colander and allow it to cool down (until all the water has drained)
- Use a fork to separate the grains and use for the salad recipe.
Please note, I have only used some quantity of this cooked amaranth for the recipe, balance was used to make the salad again for the next day. Its best to batch cook to avoid time.
This stays fresh in the refrigerator for more than couple of days.
Once the cooked Amaranth is ready, it hardly takes any time to put this salad recipe together.
Step by Step Recipe for Mediterranean Chickpea Salad with Amaranth Couscous
(1) In a large bowl, add the boiled chickpeas, onions, tomato, olives, fresh herbs, peppers. Add salt to taste and toss well.
(2) Now prepare the dressing using the ingredients as listed above.
(3) Add the cooked Amaranth to the salad.
(4) Then, add the dressing to the salad, mix well and check for salt etc. Add more if required.
(5) Chill for an hour before serving (minus the dressing) especially if you are expecting guests.
Recipe Notes -
- If you don't have access to Amaranth (it is available in all leading Indian grocery stores), you can opt for regular couscous made with Bulgar Wheat or added cooked quinoa too.
- You can add vegetables like cucumber, carrots too as a variation.
- By all means add some minced garlic to the dressing or lemon juice too for added taste.
- The salad tastes best when chilled or refrigerated.
Salad Recipes on the blog -
- Cucumber Peanut Salad
- Sprouts Salad with Mung Bean Sprouts
- Vegetarian Pasta Salad
Mediterranean Chickpea Salad with Amaranth
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups Boiled Chickpeas or Garbanzo beans 1 cup is 200 ml measurement
- 1/2 cup Cooked Amaranth Grains
- 1 nos. Tomato (medium size) finely chopped
- 2 tbsp Yellow Bell Peppers (finely chopped)
- 2 tbsp Finely chopped red bell peppers
- 7-8 nos Olives finely sliced (green olives used here)
- A small bunch of mint leaves finely chopped
- Coriander leaves finely chopped
- salt to taste
FOR THE SALAD DRESSING
- 2 tbsp Olive Oil
- 2 tsp Za'atar Spice
- 1 tsp Sweet Paprika Powder
Instructions
- In a large bowl, add the boiled chickpeas, onions, tomato,olives, fresh herbs, peppers. Add salt to taste and toss well.
- Now prepare the dressing using the ingredients under "salad dressing" above.
- Add the cooked Amaranth to the salad.
- Then, add the dressing to the salad, mix well and check for salt etc.
- Chill the salad for an hour before serving (minus the dressing) especially if you are serving for guests.
Notes
- If you don't have access to Amaranth (it is available in all leading Indian grocery stores), you can opt for regular couscous made with Bulgar Wheat or cooked Quinoa.
- You can add vegetables like cucumber, carrots too as a variation.
- By all means add some minced garlic to the dressing or lemon juice too for added taste.
- The salad tastes best when chilled for sometime.
- The recipe is vegan. You can however, add some crumbled feta cheese too to the recipe. Tastes delicious.
Taking this recipe to the #181FoodieMondayBlogHop where the theme this week as suggested by Sujata Shukla who Blogs at PepperonPizza is Levantine Cuisine. Levantine cuisine is the traditional cuisine of the Levant, known in Arabic as the Bilad ash-Sham and Mashriq, which covers a large area of the Eastern Mediterranean. Some popular dishes from this cuisine are Falafels, Hummus and their world famous Pita Bread.
If you try this at home, please give me a shout out / Tag Me on any of my social media handles.
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Vidya Narayan