A refreshing and satisfying lunch during a busy workday when working-from-home seems like a luxury. But, I guarantee this 5-minute salad is worth it. Best part? It's only a handful of ingredients and completely vegan.
First, make the hummus. I batch this part, so I'm not making heating up the house by boiling garbanzo beans every few days.
Classic Hummus
Step 1: Soak
In a huge bowl, soak dry garbanzo beans in water overnight (8-10 hours). Making hummus authentically by using dried beans that are field traceable and non-GMO is important to me, and it is a bit more effort than opening a can, although not by much.
If the beans look a little foamy and the water thickens a little bit, this is natural. I just replace the water in the bowl when I get up to get myself a drink of water. If you're vegan and use aquafaba for egg replacement, then this is for you!
Step 2: Boil
After the beans have relaxed and soaked for 8-10 hours, boil them in a stock pot for 2 hours, or until just softer than al dente. Strain and rinse well.
At this point, you can freeze the garbanzo beans you won't immediately use. Also, you can choose to peel your garbanzos, which is tedious. The Kabuli garbanzos I get are such high quality, they puree to a beautifully creamy consistency without needing to remove the waxy husk. If you choose to peel them, lay them to dry on a clean kitchen towel, then roll them up and agitate them vigorously.
Step 3: Purée
To make hummus, you'll need a food processor. Sorry, there's no good way around it.
Combine the following in a food processor, and purée until creamy using the sabatier blade:
3 cups prepared garbanzos
1.5 tsp cracked black pepper
4 cloves of garlic, smashed
juice from 1/2 lemon
pinch red chili pepper
1/3 Palestinian olive oil, or more to taste
2-3 tbsp goat's milk or other mild yoghurt or labne (optional)
You may notice I didn't add tahini. This was intentional. It is creamy and flavorful just on its own. If you like using sesame butter, add 2-3 large tbsp to this recipe.
Garbanzo salad
In a medium bowl, mix together:
1 3/4 cups prepared garbanzo beans
dash sea salt, to taste
cracked black pepper
marash or aleppo pepper
lemon juice from 2 wedges
chopped parsley
1 small red onion, diced
4 small-medium tomatoes, like Early Girls
2 tbsp olive oil
splash of red or white wine vinegar
Plating
To plate this delicious dish, use a large plating spoon and dollop hummus on one side of the bowl, right where the curvature of the side meets the bottom. Using the back of the spoon, spread counterclockwise along the curvaturte of the bowl, creating a slope up the side of the bowl from 6-12 o'clock. Spoon the chilled salad in the center of the bowl, resting on some of the hummus.
Serve and enjoy!