Chef it up, yo!

This salad was a really good find. I went looking for something light and fresh, not to mention simple and yummy… voila! A perfect dish for the summertime. Thanks once again Food Network!

So, you didn’t think I was still cheffin’ it up didja? Well, I am indeed. The deal is that I have been in a lot of pain for over a year now and just had two surgeries. The first one was on June 4th and I was basically out of commission for 2 weeks…no work, no cooking, no computer, no blogging…matter in fact, I found that not much could be done with only my left hand - well, without a large amount of frustration that is. The first surgery was carpal tunnel release on my right wrist which went phenomenal and the old symptoms disappeared immediately. I am pretty excited actually with how well both have been going along. Amazing the technology these days…Anyway, then I went in July 9th (this past Monday) for the second surgery also carpal tunnel release obviously on my left wrist. The first few days this time were pretty rough, loads of pain - seemed to be a good deal more than the right. I have reached a point now where I am starting to feel better so I decided to give the right hand a workout and type up a post. Man, one hand typing totally SUCKS by the way! Especially on a laptop where occasionally the heat from my hand activates the touch pad and acts as a click - so I find myself suddenly typing in the middle of a sentence I typed much earlier. Gah! Anyway, I apologize for leaving all of my CIUY homies hanging for so long. I am now well on my way (finally) to a pain-free existence and am dying to get back hardcore into cooking and most importantly, blogging about it. I would like to take this time to say, big ups to my parents for babysitting me, my sister for checking on me daily, H for helping me with the hard-to-do-with-only-one-hand things and to everyone who has sent cards, lovely meals, well wishes and chocolates my way. Much love to you all. Okay okay, off we go then!

Chickpea and Spinach Salad with Cumin Dressing and Yogurt Sauce

• 2 (15-ounce) cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• ¼ cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
• ½ cup chopped red onion
• ¼ cup olive oil
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice
• ½ teaspoon lemon zest
• 1 ½ teaspoons ground cumin
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• Salt and pepper
• 4 cups baby spinach leaves
• Yogurt with Orange Essence, recipe below, optional
• 2 tablespoons coarsely chopped fresh mint leaves, optional

Yogurt with Orange Essence

• 1/3 cup lowfat plain yogurt
• ¼ teaspoon orange zest
• 2 tablespoons orange juice (definitely use the juice of an orange – not Tropicana)
• ½ teaspoon honey

In a medium bowl combine the chickpeas, parsley and onion. In a small bowl whisk together the olive oil, lemon juice, zest, cumin, cayenne pepper, salt and pepper. Pour the dressing over the chickpea mixture and toss to combine. Serve the chickpea salad over a bed of spinach leaves. Top with the yogurt sauce and a sprinkle of mint, if using.

In a small bowl, stir together the yogurt, orange zest, orange juice and honey.

The original recipe was found on the Food Network site under the same title.

(click on images to enlarge)

Methane Meter says:

Download or print recipe here:
Chickpea and Spinach Salad with Cumin Dressing and Yogurt Sauce Recipe (PDF 104 kb)

This entry was posted on Friday, July 13th, 2007 at 1:17 pm and is filed under Appetizer, Uncategorized, Vegetarian. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.