Pomegranate and Chickpea Salad
This salad comes together quickly. OK, truth be told, you do need some patience to extract the pomegranate arils, but I find the process to be weirdly satisfying and meditative! I don’t have any tricks up my sleeve: I simply slice off the crown of the pomegranate with a paring knife, then I make 4–6 vertical superficial cuts along the side of the pomegranate. I use my fingers to pry open the sections. Then I extract the arils from the peel and the membranes.
If you have been discarding your cilantro stems, you’ve been missing out on some great flavour! Many people don’t know that the stems are actually very delicious and sweet—we add them to several Pakistani dishes. In fact, my friend Carole of @motherdough.to told me that the roots are also delicious, and used as an essential flavour in many Thai dishes.
This is a crunchy salad, so reserve the cilantro leaves for use in another dish.
Pomegranate and Chickpea Salad
Ingredients
- 2 cups chickpeas/garbanzo beans cooked and drained
- 1 cup pomegranate arils
- 1 lemon juiced and zested (keep juice and zest separate)
- ¼ cup cilantro stems finely chopped (reserve leaves for other use)
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 2 tsp. pul biber or Aleppo pepper you can sub with paprika
- 1 tsp sea salt or more, to taste
Instructions
- Place all ingredients in a large bowl, reserving ½ of the lemon zest, and toss gently to blend all ingredients well.
- Transfer to a serving bowl and adorn with remaining lemon zest. Sprinkle with pul biber.
