Delicious Chickpea and Eggplant Salad

Chickpeas are a legume and, as such, a staple food that you should include in any type of diet. For their part, eggplants are a vegetable with innumerable health benefits and a low calorie count.

Many of us associate legumes with hot dishes such as stews and soups. However, we can also enjoy them in salads, as in this chickpea and eggplant salad we’ll teach you to make today.

It’s a nutritious, delicious salad that’s perfect for any time of the year. Give it a try!

Chickpea and eggplant salad

When summer arrives, even the idea of ​​a heavy and hot plate of legumes can make you shudder and keep you from eating them. However, this means you’ll avoid one of the most nutritious and necessary basic foods. But have you thought about eating them in a salad?

In our recipe for today, we offer you a chickpea and eggplant salad. It’s the perfect combination that reminds us of traditional “home cooking”. In addition, the high nutritional content of its ingredients makes it an ideal, satisfying, and tasty dish, perfect for any time of year.

Let’s first learn a little more about the main ingredients and their health benefits.

Chickpeas

Chickpeas are legumes and therefore a staple food that should be included in any kind of diet. Indeed, chickpeas have a high content of plant proteins and are a source of calcium, iron, magnesium, potassium, and phosphorus.

Additionally, they’re rich in vitamins E, thiamine, niacin, and folates. They also contain large amounts of fiber, which promotes intestinal transit and makes you feel full.

On the other hand, they provide 19.4 grams of protein for every 100 grams and only 5 grams of fats or lipids.

Eggplant

Eggplant is a vegetable that provides numerous benefits. Indeed, it has high fiber content, minerals, and vitamins, and is extremely versatile for cooking. All this makes it perfect for eating in all types of diets, especially for people who want to lose or watch their weight.

Indeed, eggplant is low in calories (38 per 100 grams), since almost 93% of it is water. It also provides calcium, magnesium, potassium, phosphorous, and iron. Also, it’s rich in flavonoids and antioxidants that strengthen the immune system and heart function.

Regarding its vitamin content, it stands out for its thiamine, riboflavin, vitamin B6, ascorbic acid (vitamin C), vitamin A, and carotenes.

However, you should keep in mind that you shouldn’t eat raw eggplant. Indeed, this vegetable contains an alkaloid substance, solanine, which is toxic if consumed raw but is inactivated when cooked.

Therefore, we recommend you always wash the eggplant well and soak it in saltwater. That way, the vegetable loses part of its water and the bitter taste that solanine gives it. After that, you have to cook it.

In any case, it doesn’t have enough solanine to cause intoxication, even if you eat it raw. However, it will still have a bitter taste if you don’t cook it, so it’s better to cook it before you eat it.

Chickpea and Eggplant Salad Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 eggplant
• 1 red pepper
• Vinegar
• 1 onion or chive
• 1 clove of garlic
• Sliced black olives
• 1 container of cooked chickpeas
• Salt
• Basil
• Oil

Preparation

1. First, wash the chickpeas well. Therefore, you should wash them with plenty of water and let them drain well.
2. Afterward, sauté the eggplant and the peppers. Especially for the eggplants, you should salt them and let them drain well. That way, you’ll eliminate part of the bitter taste that they have when they’re raw.
3. Next, mix the vinegar and the basil in a small bowl, beating them well.
4. Then, in a frying pan, fry all the ingredients for a short time, except the chickpeas.
5. Once the ingredients brown a bit, remove them from the pan and let them cool. You can eat this salad cold or warm, so it depends on your taste when it will be ready for the next step.
6. Once it has cooled, add the chickpeas. Then, dress with the vinaigrette you made and mix everything very well.
7. Your salad is ready! Enjoy it!