Winter Dinner Salad with Chickpeas, Quinoa Tabbouleh, Pomegranate

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Dinner salad with pomegranate, chickpeas, quinoa tabbouleh, cucumber and tomato

Try this fall and winter dinner salad with touches from Middle-Eastern cuisine: spiced chickpeas, quinoa tabbouleh, and pomegranate. It’s dressed with garlic-infused olive oil, lemon juice, and salt and pepper.

To start this recipe, I minced five cloves of garlic and set them in a small bowl with five tablespoons of olive oil. Meanwhile, I cooked the quinoa. I already had a batch of basic chickpeas on hand. Now the vegetable prep: chop parsley for the quinoa tabbouleh, shred the lettuce, chop the cucumber. My son informed me that I should have chopped the cherry tomatoes in half, and I think he was right.

The various parts of the salad were assembled and dressed, then layered together. Finally, I squirted extra lemon juice on top along with another sprinkle of salt. If you eat dairy, good feta cheese on this will not go amiss. I put feta on my son’s portion and he liked it.

Winter Dinner Salad with Chickpeas, Quinoa Tabbouleh, Pomegranate

 

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Prep time

40 mins

Total time

40 mins

 

A dinner salad for fall and winter with Middle-Eastern touches like quinoa tabbouleh, pomegranate, and spiced chickpeas

Author: Mary Saylor

Recipe type: dinner salad

Serves: 3

Ingredients

• 1 cup cooked quinoa (1/2 cup dry)
• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• 5 Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil
• ¼ cup minced parsley
• 1 lemon
• salt
• pepper
• 2 cups cooked or canned chickpeas
• ½ tsp. turmeric
• ½ tsp. smoked paprika
• ½ tsp. curry powder
• ¾# cherry or grape tomatoes
• 1 large cucumber
• 1 large head romaine lettuce
• seeds of ½ pomegranate

Instructions

1. Cook the quinoa. I cook a cup of dry quinoa and have some left for another purpose. For just this salad you would only need ½ cup of dry quinoa.
2. Rinse the quinoa if it has not been pre-rinsed.
3. Put in a pot with just over twice as much water as quinoa.
4. Bring to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes or until the water is absorbed and the quinoa is soft. Let sit for 5 minutes, fluff.
5. Meanwhile mince 5 cloves of garlic.
6. Put the minced garlic in a small container with 5 Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil.
7. Mince the parsley.
8. Wash and shred the romaine lettuce.
9. Peel the cucumber and cut it into ¾" cubes.
10. Remove pomegranate seeds from the ½ pomegranate, peeling away any membrane.
11. When the quinoa is done, combine 1 cup of quinoa with the minced parsley, 2 Tbs. olive oil (and minced garlic), 1 tsp. lemon juice, pepper, and salt. Set aside.
12. Combine the 2 cups of cooked chickpeas with 1 Tbsp. olive oil, ½ tsp. turmeric, ½ tsp. curry powder, ½ tsp. smoked paprika, and salt and pepper to taste.
13. Dress the lettuce with 2 Tbs. olive oil, 1 Tbs. lemon juice, salt, and pepper.
14. Assemble the salad in one big bowl or on individual plates.
15. To make it on the plate, serve the lettuce onto the plates: otherwise, layer ingredients in the salad bowl.
16. Sprinkle the quinoa tabbouleh over the lettuce.
17. Add the tomatoes, cucumber, and chickpeas.
18. Sprinkle pomegranate seeds on top.
19. Finish with extra lemon juice and more salt and pepper if desired.

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Tagged as: chickpeas, cucumber, pomegranate, quinoa, romaine, tabbouleh, tomato