One of my jobs provides the glorious perk of feeding me lunch on the regular.  And last week it served up a salad that included spiced, roasted chickpeas.  They were crunchy and spicy and seriously elevated what would otherwise have been a very regular salad.  So last night, I worked up my own version and created this salad.

Jay’s Kale & Crunchy Chickpea Salad

Ingredients:

• 1 bunch of organic kale (Dark greens suck up a ton of poisons from contaminated ground. In fact, pretty much the only way to remove, for instance, heavy metals from the soil is to plant dark greens, pull them when they’re fully grown, and trash them. So don’t skimp on the greens; buy them organic or from a farmer whose growing methods you trust.)
• 1 can of chickpeas
• zatar or spice of choice
• 1 large carrot
• olive oil
• Dressing: nonfat Greek yogurt, juice of 1 lemon, chili powder, salt & pepper, olive oil, garlic powder

Drain the chickpeas, rinse them, leave them out to dry or, if you don’t have the time for that, put them in the over on low heat for six or seven minutes.

When the chickpeas are dry, coat in olive oil and toss in the spice of your choice.  I used zatar because I love zatar, but a combination of Indian spices would be great, too.  Coat thoroughly and put in a 400° oven.

Wash, spin-dry, and finely chop the kale; shred the carrot (I used s “baby” carrots) with a potato peeler, and mix in a bowl.

In a bow or mug, mix together the lemon juice, 4 or 5 heaping spoonfuls of yogurt, 2 tbs of olive oil, and the remaining seasonings to taste.  I made a yogurt and lemon based dressing because I was working a Middle East thing with the zatar. Adjust the dressing ingredients according to the spices you use on the chickpeas. Southwest-style chickpeas, for instance, might be roasted with cumin and chili powder or a pre-made taco seasoning pack.  In that case, you could make a dressing of olive oil, red wine vinegar, garlic powder, etc.

When chickpeas are a golden brown and hard on the outside (after approximately 1 hour), remove from the oven and toss with the shredded veggies.  Stir the dressing until completely mixed, and pour it over the salad.  Mix to coat well.