ZLT Salad Recipe

Eileen, this is for you!

ZLT ROMAINE SALAD

Ingredients:

•  1 cup chickpeas (if you buy tinned ones, make sure the tin is marked "BPA-free"), drained and rinsed
• olive oil
• 2 tsp fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp chile powder
• sea salt, to taste
• 2 cups grape tomatoes halved lengthwise
• fresh ground black pepper
• 1 med zucchini, ends trimmed and sliced lengthwise in 1/4 inch thick strips
• romaine leaves

Method:

• Preheat oven to 400 deg. Pat chickpeas dry and toss in a large bowl with lemon juice, chili powder, salt and 2 tsp olive oil. Spread on parchment paper lined baking sheet and roast at 400 degrees for 35 - 45 minutes until golden and crunchy. Let cool and set aside.
• In a bowl toss tomatoes with 1 tsp olive oil, and sea salt and pepper to taste. Arrange tomatoes cut side up on a parchment-lined baking sheet and roast at 400 degrees for 15 - 20 minutes. Set aside and let cool.
• Brush zuchinni strips with 1 tsp oil and season with sea salt and pepper. Arrange on a parchment-lined baking sheet and roast at the same time as the tomatoes for 8 - 10 minutes, flipping once, until browned and softened. Set aside and let cool.
• Arrange romaine leaves on plates, top with zuchinni strips. Drizzle with dressing (recipe to follow), garnish with tomatoes and crispy chickpeas, and serve.
  

CLEAN RANCH DRESSING

• 3/4 cup nonfat plain Greek yogurt
• 1/2 cup low-fat buttermilk
• 2 tsp fresh lemon juice
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• 1/2 tsp onion powder
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder
• 2 Tbsp chopped fresh chives
• 1 Tbsp chopped fresh dill
• sea salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

Whisk all ingredients together and refrigerate for a minimum of 1 hour or ideally overnight.

Of course, there is lots of room for interpretation in this recipe.  You can use any old dressing you like, you can substitute any crunchy topping (roasted pumpkin seeds might be nice) for the chickpeas. And if you're not big on zuchinni, roast some other vegetable. And if you like your bacon, well ... 

 By the way, there are lots of recipes for making crunchy chickpea (garbanzo bean) snacks. I've set some aside but this is the first time I've actually tried them. Now I want to revisit some of those other recipes and try some other, perhaps, stronger flavours. Here's one recipe for roasted chickpeas that I plan to try some day.