Tuesday, May 16, 2017

Chickpea, Cucumber, Tomato and Feta salad
{It's a side dish but it's also a pita sandwich!}

Last week my eating patterns were way off. Always happens when Doug leaves town....I seem to eat late and I usually just toss a meal together from leftovers in the fridge.  Ok, I did treat myself to sushi one day for lunch.  That was great.

One evening I made my egg and rice stir fry and stayed up late to finish my latest Peter Robinson book. For dinner the following night I made a salad with chickpeas, tomatoes, olives and feta.  I stuffed a pita pocket with it and had a nice light dinner.  There was enough salad leftover to serve as a side with a Greek Shrimp Scampi for dinner once Doug was home.

shrimp

He had to go to Marathon in the Keys but it's not as great as you'd think.  Fly down for a meeting and then back again the next evening.  No time to enjoy that tropical part of our state.  To make things complicated, he couldn't get a flight back until near 11:00 P.M. and that means I drive to the airport late.  In the dark.  If your vision isn't great that can be a scary expedition so.....and this was probably stupid......I left super early and sat in the short term parking and watched a movie on my tablet!  Crazy, huh? :-)

The following evening the good life begins when we can make a meal and enjoy it on our covered porch.  Sit and sip wine, talk, eat seafood and watch a couple of foxes eating the leftovers I leave on a tree stump.  I think our actual home could be smaller and we'd be fine as long as we had a covered porch.  It's just about the best room of all.

foxfox1

Here is the recipe for the salad.  Obviously a recipe is more like a guideline so substitute where you like and make it per your taste.   Summer salads are always so good!


Chickpea, cucumber, tomato and Feta salad

  • Ingredients
  • 1 (15 oz) can of chickpeas, rinsed and drained
  • 1 red bell pepper, chopped
  • 1 yellow bell pepper, chopped
  • 1/2 small red onion, chopped
  • 15 grape tomatoes, halved (about 1 cup)
  • 1/3 cup pitted  olives
  • 1 medium cucumber, sliced 
  • 4 oz feta cheese, crumbled or cut into 1/2 inch cubes

  • Dressing:
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 teaspoon dried oregano
  • freshly ground salt and pepper, to taste
INSTRUCTIONS
  1. Place all salad ingredients into a large bowl and toss to combine.
  2. In a small bowl, whisk together olive oil, lemon juice, garlic and oregano. Pour onto salad and toss again to well combine. Taste and add salt and pepper as you'd like.

sandwicjh

Linking up to Deb at Kahakai Kitchen for her Souper Sunday and with Beth Fish's Weekend Cooking Series.




 . SouperSundays

12 comments:

  1. Our house in FL is tiny, but it's fine because we spend so much time on the screened porch... it's my favorite room, too! The salad looks so good. I'm adding the ingredients to my grocery list now.

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  2. Looks so good! I'd skip the pita though since I'm cutting back on carbs.

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  3. I love a covered porch - especially a screened one because mosquitoes come from miles around to bite me. I get out of whack when J is out of town too though I must say even though your schedule is off you're eating pretty great! This all looks tasty and healthy! I don't drive at night very much and can sometimes get really stressed if I have to do it so I'm all for hanging out in your car watching a movie!

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  4. JoAnn, I hope you like it. It's good for the first two days then gets soggy so next time I will make a smaller portion. Yea to screened rooms!

    Vicki, it's great lol on its own so no breads needed .

    Katherine, next time I have to go to the airport early I found out there is parking called Cell Phone parking. It would have been free. Oh well. Thanks, the salads are good for when Doug is out of town because I can take them for lunch too.

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  5. I agree about living on a covered porch, I do miss that from our house.

    I have leftover cucumber, tomato and feta that I should use up this weekend, I see it for lunch!!

    Makes me smile every timeI see you are reading Peter Robinson.

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  6. Eating salad and leftovers and reading -- on a covered porch, of course, sounds like heaven to me.

    I like this summer salad and great idea of a pita!

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  7. We used to call that going to a drive-in movie! I like that You made your own. Our covered deck is my favorite place to relax and read a good book.

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  8. Your salad is really a classic! Feta cheese with tomatoes is great.

    best... mae at maefood.blogspot.com

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  9. We have verandas which are fantastic in summer. Have a great week. Cheers from Carole's Chatter

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  10. Those foxes are so pretty. Your porch sounds like the perfect spot to hang out.

    Your salad looks delicious--I love the combination of flavors. Thanks for sharing it with Souper Sundays this week. ;-)

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  11. Thank you all for your very nice comments. After that was posted I was hit by a virus or allergy, still not sure which, and I have been sleeping constantly. Off to visit you all now, glad to be back in the land of the living again.

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