Caesar Salad with Lemon Roasted Chickpeas

Well, salad season is in full force.  I don’t know about you, but for a lot of meals, heavy, cooked foods just don’t sound good to me when it’s hot outside(and inside for that matter).  I actually have another salad dressing to share with you in a few days but for now, this one is very refreshing and light.  This dressing is usually always in our fridge, it’s a favorite of everyone’s in the house.  My husband takes a small jar of this dressing and some chopped lettuce to work and my son even asks for this Caesar salad for snacks, so it must be good right?  The original dressing recipe calls for an egg yolk from an egg that’s been coddled so you can add that if you want to keep it traditional and you can also top it with Parmesan if you’d like to but on a regular basis we just like to keep it simple.

In my salad I used the chickpeas as a protein source and used quite a few.  You can just use them in place of something like croutons though, using just a few, as roasting them makes them slightly crunchy.  If you’d rather have completely crunchy chickpeas I recommend baking them for about 50-55 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes, and maybe more frequently at the end to prevent burning.  Or you can up the temperature to 425 degrees and reduce the baking time to about 40-45 minutes, although you’ll have to watch them much closer to prevent burning.  I haven’t made crunchy chickpeas with this particular recipe, but I have used other recipes with the first method and it works well.

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Caesar Salad Dressing

Makes enough for 4-6 servings

• 1/4 C extra virgin olive oil
• 1 1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce(making sure to use a vegan option, either homemade or store bought, if that is a concern)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1/4 tsp dry mustard powder
• 1 1/2 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 2 cloves garlic, pressed or minced

Combine all in a small jar or bowl and whisk together(or shake the jar with the lid on) and store in the fridge for 1 hour before serving or up to 5 days.

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Lemon Garlic Roasted Chickpeas

• 1 can chickpeas or about 2 1/4 C
• enough lemon juice to cover one layer of chickpeas in a large pot
• 4-5 cloves garlic
• 1-2 tbsp oil
• 1/4-1/2 tsp sea salt

In a large enough pot, add the chickpeas and spread out to one even layer and cover with lemon juice(bottled is fine)   Add the garlic and bring to a simmer for 10 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Once the chickpeas have simmered long enough, drain and pour them out onto the baking sheet.  Drizzle with oil and sprinkle with salt to taste.  Stir to make sure the oil is distributed evenly and place in the oven for 30-35 minutes, stirring once 2/3rds of the way through.  Once done, remove from the oven and cool slightly before topping your salad.

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