Kale-Chickpeas Salad

A few years back, I used to believe that I’m not really a salad girl… It’s never my cup of tea! And even our Indian cuisine highlights the same ;) There’s no concept of fancy salad… Kachumber or chopped/sliced stuff is the only salad we grew up eating!!!

But ever since I started cooking full-fledged, realized that it’s quite an important part of our meal. A clean salad bowl, full of nutrition, combination of vibrant colors along with super-duper taste… appeals me more than everyday curry & roti! And more I love salad ‘coz unlike all the traditional dishes, I can put all my favorite (or healthy) ingredients together to create a new one ;) Well yes… Didn’t I tell you that KG brought a big bunch of Kale recently? I definitely wanted to use it in making something other than just smoothies :D

Planned to toss a quick salad to go with my partial-punjabi dinner… Now why I chose chickpeas? In fact, I would have used any sort of beans (i.e. butter beans, kidney beans, borlotti, black-eyed etc.) but I didn’t have any of them available in canned version. Had chickpeas and that too dried ones… So soaked in hot water for a couple of hours and pressure-cooked by evening time ;) Prepared a quick salad dressing to pour over the bowl too…

Now coming back to Kale, I never knew it gets amazing smoky flavor once sauteed.. I more loved the crackling right after adding it to the pan.. and that beautiful aroma!!!

INGREDIENTS:

6-7 Kale Leaves
1 cup Chickpeas, cooked
1/2 Tomato, chopped
2 tsp Olive Oil

For dressing–

1 tbsp Lemon Juice
2 tsp Mustard Sauce
1 tsp Periperi (just for extra zing)
Salt
Sprinkle of herbs (dried or fresh)

STEPS TO FOLLOW:

1. Wash and trim kale leaves and thinly slice them.
2. Heat olive oil in a pan and add kale leaves.
3. Add salt, herbs and saute it for a couple of mins until you find smokiness on kale.
4. Spread it onto an absorbent paper and let it get dried for 10 mins.
5. Whisk all the ingredients of dressing together.
6. Mix chickpeas, kale and tomatoes in a bowl and pour the dressing over it.
7. Toss quickly, put it in refrigerator and serve cold!

SJ’s NOTE:

• You can cling wrap the bowl and keep it in refrigerator for a make-ahead plan!
• Also, it can be served warm too (I’m yet to try that way) :)