RECIPE: Chickpea, Feta & Pickled Red Onion Salad

Recipe and Images by Maja Baska

For a long time I was spooked by dried chickpeas as I couldn’t seem to cook them enough to get them soft and squishy like the canned ones.

Until I discovered a hack that has made cooking chickpeas even better than the canned ones.

Soaking chickpeas overnight with a teaspoon of bicarb soda does wonders and massively cuts the cooking time down. Cook them in this bicarb-y water then rinse them well.

I made this recipe with Desi chickpeas which are smaller and darker and a bit more nutty in flavour, but the more widely available Chickpea is just as good.

Another chickpea tip I have found very useful is soaking and cooking a big batch and freezing for later use.

CHICKPEA, FETA & PICKLED RED ONION SALAD

Ingredients:

1 cup cooked chickpeas

1 red onion

Juice and rind of 1 lemon

1 tablespoons olive oil

Pinch of salt

100g feta or goats curd

2 Cucumbers

Small bunch of parsley chopped

Soak the red onion in the lemon juice, olive oil and a pinch of salt for roughly 20mins.

Assemble the salad with the pickled onions and their juices poured over the top at the end.