Orange-Ginger Chickpea Salad Over Curried Quinoa

This recipe is so embarrassingly late it’s not even funny – it’s been on my to-replicate list since my trip home to Cayman in March, when I ate a similar dish from local (amazing!) bistro Icoa.

If you don’t believe me check out this vacation round-up post I did on April 2nd. Scroll down to just before the food collage and you will see, clear as day:

• A fantastic ginger carrot chickpea salad on curried quinoa from a local cafe. It is on my to-replicate list!

Yup. I hope you weren’t looking forward to that too eagerly.

Anyhoo, at least it got done, right? Better late than never and all that? Besides, replicating recipes takes some tweaking. I missed out the carrots by accident (forgot they were supposed to be in there) but I actually like it as it is so I didn’t bother changing it.

I served this over a serving of curried quinoa, which is the easiest thing in the world to make. This is what the original looked like (they served the quinoa and chickpea salad in separate bowls, and then I combined it in the bowl on the right):

And so, with no further ado, here you go!

Orange-Ginger Chickpea Salad

INGREDIENTS (serves 4):

1 15-oz can (or 1.5-2 cups) cooked chickpeas
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
1 tbsp chopped fresh mint
1.5 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp lemon zest
1 tbsp orange juice
1/2 tsp orange zest
3 tbsp nonfat Greek yogurt (plain)
1 tsp minced garlic
2 tsp minced (fresh) ginger
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp cumin
2 stalks green onions, sliced
Pinch salt and pepper

DIRECTIONS:

1. Combine chopped herbs, oil and chickpeas in a mixing bowl. In a small bowl, whisk together lemon and orange juices and zests. Add yogurt, garlic, ginger and spices. Combine well and then pour over chickpea mixture and toss.

2. Refrigerate, if you can, for a few hours to let the flavours mingle. This isn’t essential but really heightens the flavours.

3. Serve over…

Curried Quinoa

INGREDIENTS (serves 4):

1 cup dry quinoa
2.5 cups vegetable stock
1 tsp curry powder

1. As I always recommend, soak your quinoa in vegetable stock for at least 30 minutes. If you can’t do this it’s not essential, but I find it helps make the quinoa much fluffier.

2. Add the curry powder and bring to a boil. Then lower to simmer and let boil until the water is absorbed and the quinoa is soft and fluffy.

3. Serve!

PS – Yes, all the photos in this post were taken on my iPhone. I am being an unbelievably bad blogger lately, please forgive!

Nutritional information is for 1 serving of both the curried quinoa and the chickpea salad, if both serve 4: