A spicy chickpea and carrot salad balanced with a quick-preserved lemon dressing, sweet dried apricots, mint, and almonds. Get your lemons preserving for the dressing first and then roast the chickpeas and carrots so everything for the salad comes together at the same time.To keep this salad vegan, use coconut sugar instead of the white granulated sugar.
1 ½teaspoonsgranulated white sugar or coconut sugar
¾teaspoonssalt
1tablespoonred wine vinegar
3tablespoonsolive oil
Roasted Chickpeas and Carrots
2tablespoonsolive oil
1cupcooked chickpeas or garbanzo beansdrained (from a can is a-ok)
¾lbs.carrots; or about 4-5 carrotspeeled and cut about 3 inch x ½ inch “sticks”
¾teaspoonground cumin
¾teaspooncinnamon
¾teaspoonpaprika
¾teaspoonsalt
Salad
5oz.baby salad greens
⅓c.fresh mintsliced into ribbons
⅓c.slivered toasted almonds
½c.chopped dried apricots
Black pepper
Instructions
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
For the quick preserved lemons:
While oven is preheating, prepare your quick preserved lemons: peel the lemons with a lemon zester and set peels aside. Then peel off the remaining white pith, just like you would peel an orange. Throw out the pith and then slice the lemon pieces and lemon peel into thick chunks. (insert picture).
Mix the lemon chunks, lemon peel, salt, and sugar in a small glass or plastic bowl and mix until everything is combined. Cover the mixture and refrigerate for 20-25 minutes. (insert picture)
For the roasted chickpeas and carrots:
Cover a large baking sheet with the two tablespoons oil. Add chickpeas and carrots to the pan and toss in the oil until covered. Sprinkle the veggies and beans with the spices and salt and toss further on the pan until all the spices are evenly distributed.
Roast veggies in the oven for 18-22 minutes, or until the beans are golden and carrots are starting to turn brown, turning the mix about halfway through the roasting time. Remove carrots from oven and let the pan cool on a cooling rack for about 5 minutes-- until just warm to the touch.
While the veggies roast, prepare your salad:
In a large bowl, layer in the salad greens, mint, almonds, and apricots. Toss if you’d like, but I like the presentation of layering it and waiting until right before serving to toss it all together.
While the veggies cool, make your vinaigrette:
Add 3 tablespoons preserved lemon mixture, red wine vinegar and oil to a food processor or blender and run on medium speed for 30 seconds - 1 ½ minute (depending on the strength of your appliance), or until the lemon peel is completely blended in and no chunks remain.
Assemble your salad:
Add the lukewarm chickpea and carrots to your salad and dress with lemon vinaigrette right before serving.