MoFo Day 16: Stacked Chickpea Salad and Late Summer Sangria

My post for today is brief: simple & sweet.     When I eat fresh produce at the end of the summer, I like to keep my recipes uncomplicated.  I like to use the late summer fruits and vegetables as quickly as I can.  This way, my dishes stay fresh and flavorful and nutritious.  The chill of autumn is already in air where I live, so I’m glad I could savor a little bit of summer before I transition into more hearty cooking methods.

This stacked salad that I made is just a hodge podge of fresh ingredients that I found: local organic heirloom tomatoes (they’re wonderful!), olive oil marinated baby kale, raw red onion and raw garlic all nestled in between layers of the easiest chickpea salad I’ve ever made.  Chickpea salad is one of those recipes that vegans love to bring to summer barbeques or picnics because it’s easy, fast and totally versatile!  It’s also an easy sell to those who aren’t vegan: it’s chickpeas in a may-like dressing with some diced veggies!  Who could say no?

Well, people who don’t like chickpeas, I guess…

     My chickpea salad is only 4 ingredients!  Well, it’s technically 5 if you count water.
This recipe calls for no super-processed ingredients and is very healthy!  It’s also oil-free but still super creamy.  I love the base dressing.  I first learned how to make it from binge watching Naturally Delicious by Ann Gentry when I first became vegan.  I found her show on television one day and was so stoked that I had “discovered” a vegan cooking show.  Little did I know, Ann Gentry is a huge deal.  I did learn quite a bit from her instructions.  This recipe is my top take-away!

It’s a bit of a “dressing hack”, if I can say those two words together without sounding too dorky.  ^_^’

Serves: approx 4-6 people
Free of: nuts, sugar, oil, gluten, soy*
*Use chickpea miso if you need! The more chickpea, the better, right?

Ingredients:

• 1-15 oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed (save that liquid! hehe)
• 2 Tb tahini
• 2 Tb shiro miso (white miso is best; it’s more mild. if you prefer a stronger one, that’s fine too, but it will change the taste)
• water, to thin
• black pepper, optional

Instructions

1. Pour your chickpeas into a medium sized bowl.
2. In a separate mixing bowl, combine the tahini and miso.
3. Whisk the miso and tahini together until smooth.
4. Thin the tahini-miso mixture to achieve your desired consistency.  I like mine a little more thick for the stacked salad, but you can make it thinner so it becomes more like a salad dressing.
5. Pour the dressing into the bowl of chickpeas and mash everything together with a large fork so the salad holds together for sandwiches, stacked salads, wraps, etc.

Yield: Approx. 5 cups
*NOT alcohol-free!*
You may sub the red wine for an alcohol-free wine, grape juice, or other juice of your choice!
Feel free to mix up the fruits, too!Ingredients

• 3 cups off dry red wine (I used a Cabernet Franc)
• 1/3 cup pomegranate juice
• 1 1/2 cups sparkling water
• 1 small, firm apple, thinly sliced (I used Gala)
• 1 medium orange, peeled

Instructions:

1. Combine all the liquid into a serving vessel of your choice and stir to incorporate (punch bowl, pitcher, etc.)
2. Add your sliced apple to the liquid.
3. Cut your orange in half.
4. Slice half of the orange into half moons and add them to the sangria.
5. Take the other half of your orange, hold it over your sangria, and squeeze the life (juice) out of it!  (You can also blend your orange if it doesn’t have seeds, but I prefer to squeeze.  It’s fun!)
6. Eat, drink, and be fancy.  Summer isn’t over yet!  B)