Chickpea Lemon Mint Rice Salad

QUICK AND HEALTHY

Dietary Meal type: Diabetic, Vegan, Vegetarian Salad, Side Dish, Child Friendly, Pre-preparable, Serve Cold, Serve Hot

Diabetic Note: Chickpeas are considered a super food for diabetics. Bursting with fiber and antioxidants they have a low Glycemic Index (GI). Rice is high GI, but when you add lemon to the rice salad it lowers the GI of the dish making this a medium GI dish and diabetic friendly !

Summer & Salads go together. When it gets super HOT outside, eating salads and keeping hydrated is all I want to do. Sometimes I crave more than just veggies, fruit and meat in my salad. I want carbs!! Then I go in for rice and couscous salads and satisfy my carb craving! I like this salad because it’s simple to make, satisfying and bursting with flavor and fiber which keep me full for a long time. Another bonus, it can be made ahead of time, bottled like pickles and mixed into rice when you need. Perfect Sunday prep for a busy weekday salad and it’s super simple to make.

Chickpeas tossed in olive oil, red onion, lemon and mint flavored with sea salt, turmeric/curicumin and cumin. Turmeric/curicumin is a powerful antioxidant that is fast becoming a super food and adding it to this salad adds super powers to it!

The salad mix is lightly sautéed on low flame to lengthen shelf life and improve flavor, but you can choose to just mix the ingredients raw without sauteing if you wish. Mix this refreshing salad mix to couscous (available in select supermarkets), semolina, or any cooked grain of your choice. It’s also perfect for that leftover rice that you don’t want to waste.

Eat it warm or cold! I prefer it at room temperature or slightly warmed up. Either way it’s spicy, tangy and refreshingly satisfying!! The lemon acts as preservative and keeps it fresh outdoors without refrigeration.

THE RECIPE

Ingredients:

2 cups chick peas
(canned washed & rinsed)
1/2 cup lemon juice
(juice of 2 lemons)
1 teaspoon curicumin
1 red onion (sliced thin)
1/2 cup mint
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 cups cooked rice
2 tablespoons olive oil

Directions:

• Heat olive oil. Add finely sliced red onion and saute 1 minute
• Add curicumin, cumin salt and saute for 2 minutes
• Add chickpeas and saute for 1 minute
• Turn fire off and mix lemon juice and chopped mint ( this will make 1 bottle of chickpea salad mix )
• Add to cooked rice as desired. 2 tbsp of salad mix per 1/2 cup rice

– Sunithi Selvaraj

Sunithi Selvaraj is a Registered Dietitian with a sweet tooth and a passion for eating healthy ( quite a combo!). She says, “Welcome to my space where I rate Nutrition Bytes that catch my eye.”

See www.suesnutritionbuzz.com