Apricot Chickpea Salad
This is a dish that works FOR you. It is easy to prepare and even better the next day.
Being totally honest, Apricot Chickpea Salad wasn’t my idea. I had it at a local market and fell in love with the salty, sweet, buttery, tangy flavors. I saved my container and brought it to work the next day. “We need to make this. It’s amazing,” I said to a co-worker at the time, Dana. She took the ingredient list and began to tinker around. Together we tasted and came up with, in my opinion, a more balanced flavor profile. Chopped Kalamata olives keep the saltiness alive but don’t over power and Turkish apricots, the brown ones, offer sweet earthy flavor. Since the garbanzo beans are dense, it really takes a day for the salad to develop, but totally worth it. I brought this to a New Year’s Eve party and it was a hit (plus friendly to all eating constitutions… no dairy, meat, or gluten.)
Watch me make this live on KCTS 9 Cooks Classics.
Directions:
- In a small bowl, mix all ingredients for vinaigrette.
- In a large bowl, combine beans, apricots, parsley and olives. Add vinaigrette to beans, mix to coat. Let marinate for at least an hour* before serving.
I just sampled this at the new Tacoma Grocery!I loved it, and bought some for lunch.Everyone is thinking about dieting this time of year…do you know an approx. calorie count on this dish?
Hi! Thanks for the comment – Just doing some quick math, I'd say it's about 180 calories/8oz serving. I don't worry too much about calories, more about satisfaction and food quality. Real food will nourish, support, and sustain. This is a great recipe because it detoxifies (shallot), has protein, fiber, good fat (extra virgin olive oil) and natural sugar (apricot). Thank you for trying it out and visitng my blog! Best Wishes, Christina
My girlfriend made this recipe the other night and it was DELICIOUS!
Great to hear! Thanks for sharing, Christina
I was very skeptical when I first read this post. I’m not a big fan of fruit-meets-savory. However, my love for garbanzo beans outweighs most biases so I went for it. This is AMAZING. I love all olives, but kalamatas can get a little intense. The apricot solves that problem, easy. Even my olive hating friends were indulging. Although while making it I endured some intense Pagliacci flashbacks (rinsing and draining garbanzo beans, quartering kalamatas, mascara running from cutting onions, chopping parsley – all daily occurrences), the final result was well worth it. In the future I’ll probably put less shallots in, mostly for the sake of those who have to smell me… Thanks Christina, its fab!
I never think about the mascara/onion/silent crying situation when I start cutting, but soon it's all down hill. Here's something weird I've noticed, when I cut onions wearing contacts, they don't bother me at all. Contacts are like little onion-bubble-shields. When wearing glasses, my eye make-up (which is usually heavy) streams down my face. Thus, my suggestion is to grab those swimming goggles you only use once a year and see if they protect your tear ducts. I'm pretty sure they'll do the trick.
I saw this yesterday on KCTS9 Cooks. My mouth was watering. I already love all the ingredients that went into it!! I cannot wait to make this for my Family. A beautiful pleasing to the eyes dish!! <3 🙂
Christina,
I find that cutting onions under water takes care of this problem.
Great tip Gary. I’ll have to try it!
Thanks,
c
I just saw you make this on KCTS and am crying because I don’t have the ingredients on hand to make it right now. It looks and sounds delicious! I will try it soon.
Thanks so much for the note Angela! I LOVE this salad too – it’s such a perfect pantry staple! Hope you enjoy 🙂