I've been cooking more and more with chickpeas (also called garbanzo beans) over the last couple of years, and I'm always looking for new uses for them - they're cheap, delicious, packed full of protein, fibre, vitamins and minerals - and one of my new favourite ways to eat them is mixed into a big bowl of mixed bean salad.
This salad is a great one to try for anyone looking for quick and easy real food recipes, it could be altered to suit whichever beans and flavours you prefer, and could be eaten with almost anything, a side dish for baked potatoes, in a tortilla wrap with guacamole and natural yoghurt, or just as a healthy lunch served with home-made bread and some apple, as we had it today.
It also passed the taste test with our 2 year old, Remy, she was happy picking through it and eating her favourite parts, which I was very impressed with, as just a few months ago she was a very picky eater, now she'll try almost anything.
This salad can be left overnight, and the flavours will develop, so this would be a great make-the-night-before dish for a picnic, stored in the fridge overnight and packed in a insulated food bag for a trip out the next day.
- 150g cooked kidney beans
- 150g cooked haricot beans
- 300g cooked chickpeas
- 1 red & 1 green bell pepper (chopped)
- 4 spring onions (sliced)
- 1 stick of celery (chopped)
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- juice of half a lemon
- 2 tsp wholegrain mustard
- handful of chopped fresh parsley
- Mix all ingredients in a bowl and leave in fridge for 1 hour before serving (if you can wait that long).
- Wow, that was easy! Enjoy!
