Pickled Chickpea Salad

Recipe adapted from Good Eatings and Monson Made This

Husband-Tested in Alice’s Kitchen

I wish I was clever enough to have come up with the thought of pickling chickpeas.  It’s one of those ideas that is so simple, it’s genius.  This is a perfect food to have in the fridge to enhance any salad or sandwich.  There’s no cooking involved, so make a couple of batches for those too-hot-to-cook days.  The original recipe called for seasoned rice vinegar, but I’d rather control the seasoning of the vinegar, so I used the ingredients from Quick Pickled Red Onions to pickle the chickpeas.  After the chickpeas have a couple of days in the fridge, then use some of the brine to make a great salad dressing.  Add the pickled chickpeas to any of your favorite vegetables in a salad or mash them up a bit and include them in a sandwich.

 

Pickled Chickpeas

1 cup brown rice vinegar or apple cider vinegar

2 teaspoons kosher salt

2 teaspoons maple syrup or agave nectar

½ teaspoon whole black peppercorns

2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

1½ cups – 2 cups cooked chickpeas, rinsed and drained

 

Add the vinegar, kosher salt, syrup, peppercorns and garlic to a jar.  Screw on the lid and shake vigorously or until the salt has dissolved. Add the rinsed and drained chickpeas to the jar.  Place the jar in the fridge and let it set for at least 2 days before using.

 

Chickpea Brine Salad Dressing

3 Tablespoons of the chickpea pickling brine (from recipe above)

3 Tablespoons tahini

3 Tablespoons nutritional yeast

1 teaspoon (or more) hot sauce

Kosher salt, to taste

Freshly ground pepper, to taste

Water, to thin the sauce as desired

 

Place all the brine salad dressing ingredients into a bowl except the water.  Whisk until well blended.  Whisk in a bit of water, starting with 1 Tablespoon.  Keep adding the water bit by bit until you get the consistency you wish.  Drizzle over a salad of vegetables and pickled chickpeas or mash the dressing into some pickled chickpeas before adding to a sandwich.  The salad pictured above included fresh raw corn kernels, cucumbers, tomatoes, bell pepper, scallions and fresh baby greens.