Chickpea, Lemon, and Mint Salad

This is a fine salad to serve as part of a meal along with other salads, so people can graze around, taking a bit of what they want, when they want. As mentioned, it’s pretty important to use good quality dried chickpeas; I’ve noted some sources below. Although we don’t get them in Paris, fresh green chickpeas are showing up at markets in the United States, and are available in other parts of the world, and it might be interesting to try this salad with them.

To cook dried chickpeas, rinse them and remove any stones or other debris. Put them in a large saucepan or Dutch oven, and cover with plenty of water. If you live in a place with hard water, you might want to add about 1/2 teaspoon baking soda to the water, which aids in softening of the chickpeas. Cook at a gentle boil until the chickpeas are tender; it will take about 1 to 2 hours. Once cooked, remove from the heat and drain. Soaking the beans in water overnight will speed up the process, and dried chickpeas double in volume when cooked.

In certain parts of Italy, red pepper is a lot more common to use than black pepper. So if you want to add some of either, feel free to do so.