Moroccan Chickpea & Zucchini Salad (Africa)

Submitted by Pneuma

"from Garth Shnier, Executive Chef of The Western Cape Hotel & Altiraspa for showcook.com Added for WZT. Preparation time assumes that the chickpeas are canned or cooked."

 

• Ready In: 20mins
• Ingredients: 17
• Serves: 4-6

ingredients

• 240 g chickpeas (canned. if uncooked, soak overnight then boil until soft)
• 240 g zucchini (courgettes)
• 1 teaspoon garlic, minced
• 10 ml lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon vinegar, white wine
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 2 teaspoons honey
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 1 teaspoon mixed spice, paste (actually calls for spice paste take note of recipe below)

• Spice paste

• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon peppercorn, ground
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
• 5 teaspoons olive oil

directions

1. Blanch and refresh zucchini. Combine all ingredients and toss together.
2. Spice paste: Combine all the spice paste ingredients and fry to develop flavours. Refrigerate.

Reviews

[mersaydees]

Wonderful salad. I added some sliced avocado since I had some and served it all over a bed of iceberg lettuce -- my DH's favorite. I also add the minced garlic to the zucchini when blanching since I prefer a more cooked garlic flavor (more mellow) in my salads. Thanks, Pneuma! Made for Aussie/New Zealand Recipe Swap #19.

 

[Maven in the Making]

This was really good. Nice use for all the garden zucchini ripe just now. I took other reviewers' advice and used half the cayenne (thinking that I could add it back if needed). I made the spice paste using half of all the ingredients and found that I had more than enough for making this recipe with this amount (in fact, I have approximately 1 tsp. left to make another batch soon). I did blanche the zucchini in boiling water for about 1 minute after it came back up to a boil then shocked it in ice water to stop the cooking process. Worked fine. Healthy, nutritious, easy, full of extra protein. What more could you ask?! Thanks.

 

[Marina K]

Thanks for a delicious and different way to use zucchini! I double the recipe, using a 15 oz can of chickpeas, and one zucchini and one summer squash (I didn't blanch them, and the texture was fine). It wasn't too spicy, and I served it with whole wheat pita - yum!

 

[Heirloom Tomato]

I liked this and it was fun to make the spice paste. I first tasted it at warm room temperature and liked it a lot. It was less enjoyable refrigerated, so next time I will serve it at room temp. I might saute the zucchini next time. Now must figure out what to do with the leftover spice paste...

 

[Georgiapea]

No complaints at all; this was delicious! I ground most of my own spices in a second hand coffee grinder that I recently got. This makes a huge difference in flavor; I highly recommend it! The dish has a nice kick to it, but not too much for me. I'd have to cut back for some of my friends though. It took me about 15 minutes total to make this. Great dish - I ate it at room temperature, right when I finished preparing it! Thanks so much!