Google+ Allergy-Free Vintage Cookery: Chickpea and Arugula Salad with Warm Balsamic Blackberry Dressing

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Sunday, January 15, 2012

Chickpea and Arugula Salad with Warm Balsamic Blackberry Dressing


Berries make everything so much more fun, don't you think?  We've been lucky to find fresh blackberries at our local market pretty often this winter, and for Christmas we were even luckier to receive a number of gourmet pantry items as a gift -- one of which was a bottle of Blackberry Ginger Balsamic Vinegar.  Vegan Dad mentioned he had been craving chickpeas, so I decided to see what I could make with chickpeas and blackberries.

This sweet and tangy salad is the result.  It's extremely quick to make, and if you're a big fan of chickpeas and eat the entire salad as your dinner, you'll have consumed over 20 g. of protein!  Since Blackberry Balsamic Vinegar probably isn't very easy to find, I've included substitutions in this recipe.

Chickpea and Arugula Salad with Warm Balsamic Blackberry Dressing

1 can chickpeas
1 cup arugula
1 cup fresh green beans
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
2 Tbsp honey (or agave nectar if you're vegan)
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp grated fresh ginger (or 1/2 tsp powdered)
1 pint fresh blackberries


In a small saucepan on the stove, mix together vinegar, honey, ginger and olive oil.  Add 5- 7 blackberries and crush with a fork.  Warm mixture over medium heat, add chickpeas and toss to coat.  Add the rest of the blackberries and stir carefully to keep them whole.  Warm through, about 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Meanwhile, cut green beans into 1" pieces, set in a glass bowl with 1 - 2 Tbsp water, and microwave for 1 - 2 minutes to soften.  Don't overcook; you just want to warm these.  If you are using haricots vert, you won't need to cook them as long.

Arrange arugula in a large, shallow bowl.  Place green beans on top, then chickpea mixture.  You may want to manually reposition a few berries to make the dish look nice.  Serve warm; serves 1 hungry person as a main course, or up to four people as a side salad.

Shared with Friday Food Flicks at Traditional Foods and Whole Food Wednesday at Beyond the Peel and Real Food Link Love at Butter Believer and Freaky Friday at Real Food Freaks and Monday Mania at the Healthy Home Economist and the Homestead Barn Hop at the Prairie Homestead and Slightly Indulgent Tuesday at Simply Sugar and Gluten Free and Fat Tuesday at Real Food Forager and the Hearth and Soul Hop at Premeditated Leftovers and Traditional Tuesday at Cooking Traditional Foods and Just Another Meatless Monday at Hey What's For Dinner Mom? and Real Food 101 at Ruth's Real Food and Make Your Own Monday at Nourishing Treasures and Gluten Free Wednesday at the Gluten Free Homemaker and Whole Food Wednesday at Beyond the Peel and Midweek Fiesta at Food Corner and Simple LIves Thursday at GNOWFLGLINS and Pennywise Platter at the Nourishing Gourmet and the Gallery of Favorites at Premeditated Leftovers and Wellness Weekend at Diet Dessert and Dogs and Allergy Friendly Friday with Cybele Pascal and Healing with Food Friday

8 comments:

  1. Yum!! That dressing sounds amazing! Great job.

    -Amber

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  2. Thanks for linking your great post to FAT TUESDAY. This looks delish! Hope to see you next week!

    Be sure to visit RealFoodForager.com on Sunday for Sunday Snippets – your post from Fat Tuesday may be featured there!
    http://realfoodforager.com/fat-tuesday-january-17-2012/

    Share your great fermented food recipes at my Probiotic Food Linky – open through Februray 6, 2012.
    http://realfoodforager.com/probiotic-food-challenge-linky/

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  3. I love simple and tasty salad like this! You combination of blackberries, arugula and green beans sounds great!

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  4. Hi Lisa, What a gorgeous salad. I just posted a vegan chickpea salad too. Great minds think a like. I've seen a lot of blackberries around lately, and this would be a great way of including them into a meal.
    I host Whole Food Wednesdays at beyondthepeel.net. I'd love it if you dropped by for a visit. This is exactly the types of recipe we're looking for. Thanks and have a great rest of your week.

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  5. What an interesting combination - I've never thought to combine chickpeas with berries before. Your recipe looks delicious! Thank you for sharing this with the Hearth and Soul Hop.

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  6. looks good, I think that will adapt well to our raw food diet. Thanks for sharing.
    I followed a link y=here from the midweek fiesta

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  7. I really love the fresh flavours in this salad - and I do love blackberries! I know a lady who markets blackberry balsamic vinegar too so I may be able to copy the recipe almost exactly. Thank you for sharing this delicious post with the Gallery of Favorites.

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