Nohut Salatası

When looking for Turkish recipes for the challenge other than mercimek kofte, one of the first ones I found was this recipe for a Turkish chickpea salad. It looked delicious and I followed it almost exactly (other than some adjustments of seasoning to taste).

We had most of the ingredients at home already and just needed to buy some fresh green onions and parsley. We needed:

- 2 cans of chickpeas ($1.50)
- 3 tbsp olive oil ($0.60)
- 3 tbsp apple cider vinegar ($0.50)
- salt to taste (about 1/2 tsp salt) ($0.05)
- 1 tbsp lemon juice ($0.10)
- 5 green onions, chopped small ($0.70)
- 1 cup flat leaf parsley, chopped ($0.75)
- 1/3 cup (or more) feta cheese, crumbled ($1)

The total was a little over $5. Not too bad for a big bowl of salad with leftovers.

Making this salad was really easy but for best results, you need to start at least a couple of hours before. I noticed this the first time I read the recipe, but for whatever reason, when I re-read it the day before making it, I didn't see it (maybe I only looked at the top of the recipe where it said the prep time was 20 minutes). It was like the Fainting Imam dish all over again. At least this time I read all the recipes again over lunch on cooking day which gave me time to start the marinating early enough.

First, rinse and drain the chickpeas.

Put chickpeas in a shallow dish and add the olive oil, apple cider vinegar and salt. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours (or up to overnight). I would have done overnight if I read the directions correctly the day before, but at least I was able to get 3-4 hours of marinating in. I do think marinating helps augment the flavor of the chickpeas.

After marinating, put chickpeas in a bowl, and add lemon juice, green onions, parsley and feta cheese. I also included any of the excess oil and vinegar from the chickpea marinating that was left in the dish.

Mix everything together and adjust seasonings to taste.

This was a really good salad. The chickpeas benefited from the marinating, and mixing feta, scallions and parsley together is always a good combination. Very healthy, easy to make, refreshing and light, perfect for summer. Would definitely make this again.