Supper Club: This Turkish chickpea salad will be your new summer side staple

This is popular street food in Turkey. Vendors cook the chickpeas (garbanzo beans) in a lamb stock and serve them in this fresh salad. Chickpea rolls are sold in front of bakeries and enjoyed in the early morning in homes and workplaces. This tradition is still strong in Gaziantep, Sanliurfa and Adiyaman.

Chickpea salad
Nohut Piyazi

Region: Adiyaman, Southeastern Anatolia
Preparation time: 10 minutes, plus overnight soaking
Cooking time: 1 hour, 40 minutes

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 200g chickpeas (garbanzo beans), soaked overnight
• 60ml olive oil
• 1 (120g) medium onion, sliced into crescents
• 2 garlic cloves roughly chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, sliced into crescents
• 2 sundried tomatoes, finely sliced
• ½ tsp ground cumin
• ½ tsp dried chilli (red pepper) flakes
• 1 tsp ground sumac
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• ½ bunch flat-leaf parsley, finely sliced
• 6 fresh basil sprigs, finely sliced

Method

1. Drain the soaked chickpeas (garbanzo beans), then cook in a saucepan of simmering water until soft, about 1½ hours.
2. Drain and put the cooked chickpeas into a large bowl.
3. Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat, add the onions and garlic and cook for 2 minutes. Add the bell pepper and sundried tomatoes and cook for a further minute.
4. Add ½ tsp salt, then pour the mixture over the chickpeas and mix gently. Add the cumin, dried chilli (red pepper) flakes, sumac, lemon juice, parsley and basil, mix gently and serve.

 

Extracted from The Turkish Cookbook by Musa Dagdeviren (Phaidon).