Chickpea and carrot salad with miso-tahini dressing

Roasted veg hold up so fantastically in the fridge for easy, elevated salads all week long. And while these chickpeas are best eaten the day of roasting, I am beyond thrilled to find a new way to fancy-up salads.

Credit: Heidi Sze

• serves

  2

• prep

  20 minutes

• cook

  32 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

Vegetables make me feel bright. I adore them. They are such an important part of my diet. Creating meals using my weekly vegetable box makes me feel connected and whole. And this habit of using vegetables as the base, nay, star, is a practice I can only encourage.

Ingredients

• 4 medium carrots
• 1 small clove garlic, skin on
• sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper
• ½ - 1 tsp cumin seeds(optional)
• 1 x 400 g can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tbsp pepitas (see Note)
• 2 big handfuls baby spinach (or other dark salad green)
• 1 handful snow peas, stems removed and sliced (or for an alternative vegetable, try diced capsicum or peas)
• ½ tbsp diced red onion
• 1 handful fresh coriander leaves

Dressing

• 1 tsp (heaped) miso paste
• 1 tbsp hulled tahini
• ¼ tsp apple cider vinegar
• ½ tsp tamari
• ½ tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• ¼ – ½ tsp freshly grated ginger (to taste)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 200°C. Line a baking tray with baking paper.

Slice the carrots in half lengthways, then chop into 4 cm chunks. Place on the baking tray with the garlic clove and season with salt, pepper and cumin seeds, if you like.

Place the drained, rinsed chickpeas on a large sheet of paper towel, then pat them down with another piece of paper towel, drying them as best you can. Add the chickpeas to the baking tray then drizzle the olive oil over the top. Mix well using your hands or a large spoon, then shake the pan so the carrots and chickpeas are in an even layer. Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes until the chickpeas and carrot pieces are golden, removing the pan from the oven halfway through to remove the garlic clove and stir the carrots and chickpeas.

Meanwhile, toast the pepitas in a small frypan over low heat until golden, about 2 minutes. Set aside.

Make your dressing by combining the miso paste, tahini, vinegar, tamari and oil in a small bowl, stirring well. Add the ginger and, when out of the oven and cooled, the roasted garlic clove (remove the skin first). Mash the garlic into the mixture and then add a drizzle of water as required to get a desired consistency (you want it not too runny but certainly not a thick paste). Taste and adjust seasoning as desired.

Assemble salads by placing the spinach leaves in the bowls, then top with the snow peas, roasted carrots and chickpeas, red onion and coriander. Drizzle over the dressing and then the toasted pepitas.

Note

• Pepitas are the dried green kernels from sunflower seeds and are available in most health food shops or the health food section of supermarkets.

• To bulk this meal out, add 1 cup of cooked wild rice or quinoa to the salad assembly, along with an extra drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

Recipe from Apples Under My Bed by Heidi Sze, with photographs by Heidi Sze.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.

Vegetables make me feel bright. I adore them. They are such an important part of my diet. Creating meals using my weekly vegetable box makes me feel connected and whole. And this habit of using vegetables as the base, nay, star, is a practice I can only encourage.