Indian Chickpea Salad

Salads! Salads! Salads! Am going to post some simple, quick, filling yet delicious salads in the coming weeks. Am going to start with my all time favourite Desi salad, i.e the Indian Chickpeas. I love the tanginess of the lime, crunchiness of the onion, sourness of the tomato & finally the chickpeas which helps in combining all these flavours to make your salad absolutely delicious. So let's bring on Summer with some yummy refreshing salads!!

Ingredients:

• 1 x 400g can of chickpeas
• 1 green chilli (finely chopped)
• 1 clove of garlic (finely chopped)
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 medium tomato (roughly chopped)
• 1 medium red onion (finely chopped)
• 1/2 cucumber (cut into batons)
• 2 tbsp coriander leaves (finely chopped)
• 8-10 baby spinach leaves (washed, if necessary chopped)
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• salt & pepper to season

Method:

1. Heat the oil in a non stick pan & add the cumin seeds, garlic & green chillies.
2. Now add the canned chick peas to the pan & toss for a minute. If you want, you can soak raw chickpeas overnight & boil it before making the salad. Its a time consuming process, so better use the tinned chickpeas.
3. Add the tomatoes to the chickpeas & toss for 30 seconds. Switch off the heat.
4. Pour 1 tbsp of lemon juice over the chickpea salad.
5. Add the chopped onions, cucumber batons & coriander leaves to the chick pea salad & toss once more.
6. Pour the remaining lemon juice & season with salt & pepper. Serve immediately.