Moro chickpea salad

I love the fresh herbs in this salad, the tang of the red wine vinegar and the bite of the red onion. I won't lie, the preparation of the vegetables takes a while, but I think it's worth the effort. I have many happy picnic memories of enjoying this with friends.

This recipe is from the Moro cookbook. This is a great book and well worth buying. It's home to some of my other favourite recipes such as their broad bean and dill pilaf and the best fattoush salad dressing I've come across.

Chickpea Salad

serves 4

2 x 400g tins of cooked chickpeas drained

1 garlic clove

1 green chilli

1/2 red onion finely chopped

squeeze of lemon juice

1 tbsp red wine vinegar

4 tbsp olive oil (or less to taste)

1 medium cucumber

10 cherry tomatoes

1 small bunch of mint and of coriander

Salt and pepper

I did try to make my own chickpeas but they didn't work: I soaked them overnight with bicarbonate of soda then rinsed and boiled them in fresh water for TWO hours and they were still hard as little bullets. Other recipes say to boil them with a pinch of bicarb, I might try this, or I might just open a tin of 50p cooked chickpeas!!

Give the vegetables and herbs a good rinse and spin the herbs dry. As you work through preparing all the vegetables you can just add them to the same bowl. Crush the garlic clove to a paste with salt. De-seed and finely chop the chilli.

Now onto de-seeding the cucumber and tomatoes, I think is worth the effort as it makes sure that the salad doesn't get too soggy and stops the dressing getting watered down. Cut the cucumber in half then cut these lengths into three more manageable pieces. Next cut out the wet seedy bit in the middle of the cucumber (like coring an apple) then dice it into small pieces. Cut the cherry tomatoes in half and scoop out the seeds with a teaspoon and finely dice.

Lastly de-stalk and rough chop the herbs and add to the bowl. Now you can mix in your red wine vinegar, olive oil and squeeze of lemon juice and it's ready to enjoy. I don't find that it keep very well as the next day the herbs can look black so it's one to enjoy on the day.

Moro the cookbook