Yam, Zucchini and Chickpea Salad

After many meals of homemade Chinese food this week, I was determined to make something Western style for a change. I had zucchini, yams and tomatoes in the kitchen, so I went on Google and typed in "yam, zucchini." Don't ask why I didn't type in tomatoes.

There were quite a few results for "Yam Zucchini and Chickpea Salad." That was interesting! I clicked into it and after skimming over a few pages, I thought, "Hey, I can actually make this!"

The only thing I didn't have on hand was lemon, so I called J.S. (who was on the way home) to get me a lemon. He came home with a huge lemon from Safeway which was an atrocious 99 cents! He told me, "The display sign said 69 cents!" Oh well, to make things even worse,  when I cut the lemon in half, I was dismayed to see that the skin was about 1 cm thick!

Note to self: Stock up with lemons next time.

Moving on, time to show you how I made the salad!



Ingredients you will need:

• 2 zucchini


• 2 yams


• 1 can of chickpeas


• 1/2 onion


• 4 cloves garlic


• Juice from 1/2 a lemon


• 1 teaspoon sesame oil


• Salt and pepper to taste


• Olive oil

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 400°F.


2. Dice the yams and zucchini into half-inch cubes.


3. Line baking pans with parchment paper and distribute the yam cubes in an even layer in two pans. Spray some cooking oil and season generously with salt and pepper.


4. Bake the yam cubes for about 30 minutes until they are just starting to brown.


5. In the same pans, without taking out the yams, throw in the zucchini cubes into the pans and stir them around to mix well.


6. Return the pans to the oven to bake for another 15 minutes, turning up the temperature to 450°F.


7. While the yams and zucchini are baking, drain and rinse the chickpeas.


8. Chop garlic finely and dice the onion into small pieces.


9. Saute the garlic and onion until golden brown in some olive oil, and throw in the chickpeas and stir them around for about five minutes.


10. To make the dressing, in a small bowl, mix two tablespoons of olive oil, one teaspoon of sesame oil and the juice of half a lemon. Season with salt and pepper to taste.


11. Combine the baked zucchini and yam cubes, the warm chickpeas, and the dressing in a large bowl and toss lightly.

Here are some pictures of the process... Not that many because I didn't expect this to be a big cooking project. 

And that is done! It tasted delicious and light! Even J.S., who was skeptical about it at first, enjoyed it! It also makes a good side dish for rice or porridge. Some like it for lunch the next day, but I found that the zucchini got soggy and didn't taste as fresh as the day I made it.



The final product!

And the tomatoes? I thought of adding them to the salad but I didn't want to overdo it and ruin everything. Maybe I will try to make some couscous/tomato salad next! It will be nice and cool for summer picnics on a hot day!

♥ Nikki