Our friend Gianna Thiess has put together this crunchy, flavorful delight of a salad, perfect for a summery picnic or lunch on your balcony. Gianna was the featured chef at our last Good Supper event and is a genius at making simple and easily available ingredients shine and taste like you never knew they could — and she has a knack for adding crunch to everything — my absolute favorite texture. Enjoy!
Serves 3-4 persons
300 g Chickpeas (canned, or if using dry pleas cook before as stated)
3 big carrots
1tsp coriander seeds
2 scallions
1 cup mint
1 chilli
150 g Greek yoghurt
1 lemon
4 tbsp olive oil
Instructions
As a vegetarian chef I find it important to play with different flavours and textures in the creation of a new dish. It should always touch as many senses as possible in order to obtain complete satisfaction.
Peel the carrots and cut them into thick sticks. Heat up some water in a pot, add some salt and blanch the carrots for one minute. Then drain them and cool with ice cold water.
Mix the Greek yoghurt with the zest of the lemon and store in the refrigerator until serving. Keep the remaining lemon for juicing later.
Chop the scallions into thin rings. Heat up a pan, add 2 tbsp of olive oil and roast the chickpeas until starting to brown. Remove the pan from the stove, add the chopped scallions and squeeze the juice of the lemon over it. Season with salt and let it cool.
Heat up another pan and roast the coriander seeds for about 10 seconds. Place them in a pestle and mortar and grind. Using the same pan, add the rest of the olive oil and roast the carrots until starting to brown. Remove the pan from the stove, add the ground coriander seeds and mix properly.
Chop the mint and the chilli thinly and mix with the chickpeas and scallions.
Arrange the chickpeas on a plate, top them with the carrots and serve with the lemon yoghurt.
To get more crunchiness you can sprinkle some roasted sesame or pistachios on top of everything.
This dish is perfect for the BBQ season. Just prepare the chickpeas and the yoghurt at home. The carrots you could easily roast on a BBQ, which adds a delicious smokey flavour.
Enjoy!
Gianna Thiess is a passionate cook based in Berlin where she regularly organizes supper clubs, caters and develops food concepts for bars and restaurants.