Classic Chickpea Salad

There is a children’s story book called ‘The Avocado Baby’ who eats nothing but avocadoes and grows up to be very strong, catching robbers and saving Grannies. We wish we were avocado babies. We could eat them all day every day with just a pinch of seasoning and maybe a spring onion if we were feeling creative. Spread across rye bread, as a dip with carrots and celery or eaten in a hurry with a spoon - avocadoes are just a handful of green goodness and they never fail to bring a smile to our faces.

Are you ready for Spring? We are! Flowers, new beginnings, green leaves and sunshine. When you eat simple foods you can almost feel the sunshine inside you and it will make you feel good all day long. This salad bowl has evolved over the last year of Africa lunches and is now our foolproof got-to-get-to-another-lecture lunch. We have had many a discussion on how to even pronounce quinoa (keen-wah) not (kwin-noah)! The salad can be thrown together whilst the quinoa is cooking and then the rest of the time can be spent catching up and sharing thoughts, the perfect way to spend lunch with a girlfriend.

Serves 2

Prep & Cooking time: 20 minutes

240g Chickpeas
80g Quinoa
½ White Onion (or any you prefer)
1 handful of Parsley
1 ripe Avocado
2 generous handfuls of mixed salad leaves (we used spinach, rocket and babyleaves)
3 tablespoons of Olive oil
half a Lemon
Salt
Pepper

Put the quinoa in a sieve and rinse under cold water. Bring a medium saucepan of water to the boil, salt it generously, and add the quinoa. Reduce the heat and simmer for about 15 minutes, until the quinoa is starting to puff up. The quinoa grain is done when the white outer circle has burst, and the grain is tender but still has some bite to it. We leave ours covered until we need to use it as it continues fluffing in the pan.

While the quinoa is simmering, the chickpea salad can be put together. Drain and rinse the chickpeas and put in a bowl with a generous helping of olive oil. Finely cut the white onion and add. Roughly chop a few parsley leaves and then mix the chickpeas, onion, parsley, and olive oil together. Squeeze half a lemon (less if you prefer) over the salad, and season to taste. We like our salad quite salty as it compliments the chickpeas.

Slice the avocado in half and cut into even lengths. Pile up the salad leaves in the bowl and then arrange the quinoa, chickpeas and sliced avocado on top. Serve with a drizzle of olive oil and maybe some balsamic vinegar. Toasted rye bread goes well with it too!

Charlotte & Jacqueline