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Early Spring Salad with Roasted Chickpeas

While spring may not be in full force everywhere, an Early Spring Salad with Roasted Chickpeas will be a welcome alternative to comfort food, at least for me and I hope for you as well. Featuring ingredients that even late blooming spring lovers will like: avocado, butter lettuce, tomato, cucumber, mozzarella and crispy chickpeas.

Early Spring Salad, roasted chickpeas on the side

I don’t know about you, but I always welcome a simple salad, especially when it is made with ingredients that are so easily available and that you can eat in abundance, without anything to worry about. It’s what I call a comfort salad.

Key ingredients in This Recipe

  • Butter lettuce – or Boston lettuce. You can use any type of lettuce, all depending on what you can get or what you prefer. The butter lettuce does go very well with the mild flavors of the rest of the ingredients.
  • Tomatoes – any type or any size will do.
  • Avocado
  • English cucumber – you can use zucchini instead, less juicy but equally tasteful.
  • Pearl mozzarella – feta or goat cheese. If you want to go vegan, you could opt for white beans instead
Ingredients Early Spring Salad
  • Vinaigrette with basil, or with balsamic vinegar, or honey lime or honey mustard.
  • Oven roasted chickpeasclick here for recipe.

How to Make Early Spring Salad with Roasted Chickpeas

  • Chop, dice, slice or cut the vegetables (avocado, lettuce, cucumber, and tomatoes) in the sizes you prefer. You can cube the cucumber and slice the avocado or slice the cucumber and dice the tomatoes. You get my drift.
  • Mix the vegetables with the cheese. If you prefer the chickpeas the way they come in the can, add them now as well. If you like your chickpeas crispy, please DO NOT mix them with the salad as yet.
  • Mix everything gently. You know when you mix avocado with lighter colored ingredients, the green ‘rubs’ off and you have a rather bland looking salad.
  • Prepare you vinaigrette; mix olive oil and vinegar (ratio 3:1) and mix in salt, pepper and basil, cut into chiffonade, which is basically the same way as cutting carrots into julienne, creating long strips.
  • Drizzle the vinaigrette over the salad, mix and divide over plates. Alternatively, serve the vinaigrette in a pretty pitcher, bottle, or jar and allow everybody to add as much as they like at the table. You may need to make a little more vinaigrette in this case.
  • Now it is time to sprinkle the oven roasted chickpeas over the salad and you have a lovely light lunch or dinner.

Enjoy!

Early Spring Salad Roasted Chickpeas
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Early Spring Salad with Roasted Chickpeas

Author: Marinka
While spring may not be in full force everywhere, an Early Spring Salad with Roasted Chickpeas will be a welcome alternative to comfort food, at least for me and I hope for you as well. Featuring ingredients that even late blooming spring lovers will like: avocado, butter lettuce, tomato, cucumber, mozzarella and crispy chickpeas.
Prep Time10 minutes
Cook Time1 minute
Pin Recipe Facebook
Servings: 2 people

Ingredients

  • 2 avocados cubed or sliced
  • 1 head butter lettuce Boston lettuce
  • 8 ounces tomatoes quartered, diced or sliced
  • 8 ounces mozzarella pearl or chopped
  • 1/2 English cucumber slices or diced
  • salt & pepper

Basil Vinaigrette

  • 3/4 cup olive oil
  • 1/4 cup white wine vinegar
  • 2 tablespoons basil leave cut in chiffonade or chopped
  • salt & pepper

Over Roasted Chickpeas – See recipe in blog

Instructions

  • Mix the avocado, lettuce, tomato, mozzarella and English cucumber gently.
  • Make the vinaigrette by mixing the olive oil and vinegar and add the chopped basil.
  • Mix salad and vinaigrette and serve salad.
  • Serve the roasted chickpeas separately. This way each person can add as many as they like and eat the left-overs as a snack. NOTE 1

Notes

  1.  If you add the roasted chickpeas early in the salad, they will lose their crunchiness. You can also opt for not roasting the chickpeas and add them after draining and rinsing from the can. If you like the roasted chickpeas, please click this link

Nutrition

Calories: 1426kcal | Carbohydrates: 29g | Protein: 32g | Fat: 136g | Saturated Fat: 30g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 13g | Sodium: 740mg | Fiber: 16g | Sugar: 8g

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

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