I love the look of this salad, with the many-pointed green leaves of the rocket mixed in with the roundness of the chick-peas. I have used tinned chick-peas for this dish and they were perfectly all right, although I missed the fuller flavour of the dried ones. If you want to use dried chick-peas, see the instructions for soaking them here. This is my lazy husband’s favourite dish when he is alone: he opens a tin from the larder and collects the rocket from the garden. Easy, nourishing and really excellent.
The same recipe is good using lentils instead of chick-peas.
Serves 4
2 x 400 g (14 oz) tins chick-peas
5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1–2 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
100 g (3 1/2 oz) rocket
sea salt and pepper
Drain the chick-peas and rinse quickly under cold water. Now, if you have time, squeeze the skin off the chick-peas one by one. This is much easier than it sounds, and quite quick, and it makes a big improvement to the final dish. Apart from avoiding pieces of skin between the teeth, it allows the oil to penetrate the chick-peas much better.
Heat half the oil and the garlic in a sauté pan. Add the chick-peas and heat until hot. Turn off the heat and leave the chick-peas to cool.
Remove the coarser stalks from the rocket and wash and dry the leaves.
Transfer the chick-peas to a salad bowl and add the rocket. Dress with the remaining oil, with salt to taste and plenty of pepper.