Happy Little Vegan's Fried Chickpea Salad

Another new recipe that Chris and I tried this week was Fried Chickpea Salad from Happy Little Vegans. I was pretty skeptical when it mentioned frying the chickpeas...but they are little pieces of heaven and you need to try them RIGHT NOW! Enjoy!

Fried Chickpea Salad

15 oz of cooked chickpeas (or 1 can of chickpeas)
2-3 tsp flour
2 tsp of yellow curry powder (we couldn't find it so we used a little red curry powder)
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp Cajun seasoning
2-4 cups couscous (depending on how much you want, we were good with 2 cups)
6-8 Heirloom or Exotic tomatoes (we had Roma on hand, so that is what we used)
3-4 green onion stalks
1/4 cup fresh cut basil
Juice of 1 lemon
Your favorite leafy salad greens
Salt and Pepper to taste

Mix the flour, curry powder, ground ginger, and Cajun seasoning and dust the mixture over the chickpeas. Saute in a bit of olive oil in a hot pan until nice and crispy. Sprinkle with a little salt while they are cooling and voila...hard part over!

Next, prepare your couscous. The brand that we use suggested one cup water to each cup couscous, so just pay attention to the instructions on the label. I boiled two cups of water, stirred in two cups of couscous and removed from heat. Let sit for 4-5 minutes and then fluff with a fork.

Finally, slice your veggies and begin to layer your salad. First, dump your favorite leafy salad greens in the bottom of your fabulous salad bowl. Then add your couscous and then your veggies. Top with your chickpeas, lemon juice, salt and pepper and finally, the basil.

Holy wow, this salad is fabulous! The chickpeas, the basil and the tomatoes...PERFECT combination! We had leftovers for lunch the next day and it was still delicious! This is a perfect summer meal, so enjoy soon!