Bulgur Chickpea Salad

I created this salad yesterday, as a means to have a nice break from studying for the start of my clinical rotation (Monday – ahhhh!!!!).  I just wanted to do something with chickpeas, but other than that didn’t have a clue what I was going to make. After looking in the pantry, I came across some coarse bulgur that I had never used, and decided to do a sort of salad.  This salad would also work well with quinoa.  It’s pretty similar to my Quinoa and Fall Veggie Salad.

The colors would make this a great Christmas-time dish, no?

Super easy to make.

Ingredients:

1 cup coarse bulgur + 2 1/4 cups water
1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained to get rid of excess sodium
1/2 cup diced sundried tomatoes
1/2 a large red bell pepper, diced
1/2 a small onion, diced
1/2 cup diced fresh parsley
1 cup reduced fat Feta cheese
1/2 cup vinaigrette dressing (I used Walden Farms fat free, calorie free Italian cause we had it in the fridge, but if I were to make this again I have a feeling that it would be AMAZING with some Greek dressing from Gazebo Room – I’m in love with that salad dressing. Or, if you wanted to be super awesome you could make your own dressing).
2 Tbsp lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Bring the water to a boil in a medium sized saucepan.  After it’s boiling add the bulgur and cook for about 15 – 20 minutes or until the bulgur has absorbed the water.  If there’s excess water but the bulgur is done (taste it – it should be soft but with just a hint of a crunch, kind of like brown rice) then just drain off the excess water.

2. Mix bulgur, chickpeas, tomatoes, pepper, onion, parsley, and Feta in a big mixing bowl.  Pour the dressing on top and stir.  Add lemon juice one tablespoon at a time and taste in between to make sure it’s not too lemony for you. Shake on some salt and pepper to your liking to finish.

3. Chill in the fridge and serve cold.

 

I really liked this salad, and it was really healthy. Using that fat free, calorie free dressing it came to about 200 calories for a whole cup and had like 12 grams of protein – not bad!  Plus, it’s pretty 🙂

Just lovely!

Know what else is pretty?

Puppies.

Little Nelson sticking his tongue out!

Big Toby is just so handsome 🙂

Okay, okay – enough puppy pictures……for today.

 

Pumpkin Hummus

I am currently doing the Supermarket Rotation part of my dietetic internship, and one of the awesome things about this rotation, is that there’s some recipe development involved.  This past Wednesday I was handing out samples of my Pumpkin Hummus and talking to shoppers about the benefits of hummus, as well as introducing a lot of people to jicama.  Jicama is a root vegetable, that has a touch of sweetness and a lot of crunch! It made a good counterpart to my somewhat spicy pumpkin hummus, so we cut up a jicama into dipping sticks to serve alongside.

We served the hummus out of a hollowed out acorn squash for a fun and festive look!

Here’s the recipe…

Ingredients:

1 15oz can of chickpeas, rinsed and drained (this helps get rid of almost half of the sodium!)
4 cloves of garlic, minced (I like a lot of garlic, so this is VERY garlicky.  If you’re not as big of a fan, reduce it to 2-3 cloves)
3 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons tahini (this is a ground sesame seed paste.  I usually get it in the organic aisle, but it can be pricey, so if you don’t want to buy a whole jar just to try this out, then just skip the tahini and instead add 2 more tablespoons olive oil)
1/2 cup canned pure pumpkin
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil

Directions:

1. Place everything in a food processor (or high speed blender like a vitamix) and process until smooth.
2. Taste for consistency, and if too thick, add 1 tablespoon of water at a time until it reaches your desired viscosity.

You can serve this with pita chips, celery, carrots, jicama, pepper strips, etc.

Question of the Day:  What’s your favorite dish to take to a party?  Leave a comment with your reply 🙂
A:  Tough question, but I would say that in general, I love to take foods that are healthy (or at least better for you than the traditional party foods), but that surprise people with how delicious they are.  For example, dishes like Kale Chips or Garbanzo Bean Chocolate Cake.