This is a sweet savoury chock full of Vitamin C dish to keep on hand for workday lunches. I cook up a batch of organic dried chickpeas. I don't bother with a presoak and my legumes come out just fine. It takes about an hour, 10 minutes at full boil, 50 minutes on medium heat with the lid on. You can cook in plain water, add a bay leaf or a boullion cube for flavour/salt. Drain and rinse when they're done. They are far superior to canned beans: smaller, chewier, nuttier, sweeter, zero mush, no mucous like gravy to rinse off (ugh!).
The green grocers near me carry large baskets of bright orange healthy various sized carrots. Once you've tried them, you'll never eat a prepackaged baby carrot again. They also have different kinds of beets, although at this time of year, in the full throttle of winter when most things look like they barely escaped the root cellar alive, it's mostly the standard purple beet, which is just fine. I am not a fan of cooked beets or pickled for that matter but I love them grated and raw. I use a box grater and it makes a fine mess, the kitchen is very axe murder crime scene afterward, but I grate a batch of them in one dirty turn and then squeeze out the excess water and place in a glass tupperware to keep for a week to add to salads. Such as this one. Next take the carrot and follow the same routine: wash, peel, chop off the ends, grate, squeeze out the excess water, add to a tupperware.
Chickpeas, carrots, beets and chopped kale. That's the beginning of a salad for the beginning of a week. Add some hemp oil** and toss (olive oil would be ok too but I love the dense, green, nutty, full bodied flavour of hemp, next best would be flax) and then halve a lemon and squeeze in lemon juice. Top with coarse sea salt. This salad will keep for about 5 days.
The night before, you can ladle out a few large spoonfuls into a tupperware and toss with:
- chopped apple and sunflower seeds
- an additional green leaf like arugula or mache
- fresh herbs like basil or mint or dill
- black or white sesame seeds
**I use Ruth's hemp oil which is made on the Canadian prairies. The oil is nutrient rich and full of Omega 6 and 3.
