Favorite Chickpea Salad

Pool closed Saturday. I drove back to DeKalb Sunday evening with my car loaded with the same boxes I brought home in May, plus more now — books I picked up over the summer, a second-hand mixer from the Goodwill on Pulaski Road that I am going to use to make cookies in the dorm kitchen when things get hard, which they will. This is my last semester. I can feel the end of it from here and it makes the beginning of it feel more serious.

New roommate this semester — Priya transferred to a different housing situation for the fall, a pre-med residence thing. My new roommate is named Courtney and she is from Naperville and she seems nice and she goes to bed at ten PM without exception, which will be an adjustment. I go to bed at midnight or never. But she made me coffee on the first morning using the single-cup maker she brought, and she handed it to me and said "Cream's in the fridge" and I thought: okay, this could work.

September 14th is two weeks away. I bought sunflowers on Saturday at the farmers market near the DeKalb town square — they were two dollars for a bundle and they were exactly right, tall and yellow and serious. I am going to drive to Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Worth on September 14th and I am going to bring these sunflowers. I have already decided what I will say. I have been rehearsing it in my head for two weeks.

Made soup on Sunday to settle in — the simple white bean and kale kind. A can of white beans, a bunch of kale (on clearance, fifty cents), garlic, olive oil, chicken bouillon, a parmesan rind that I keep in a bag in the freezer because Babcia Rose taught me that trick. The rind melts into the broth while it simmers and makes everything taste more serious. Total cost under two fifty. I ate it watching the parking lot again, from my new window. New window, same parking lot, same soup. Some things follow you.

The white bean soup gets me through the first night back, but what carries me through the weeks that follow is this chickpea salad — it costs almost nothing, it comes together in minutes, and it keeps in the fridge for days without asking anything of me on the mornings I don’t have much to give. I started making it in the same spirit I make the soup: can of beans, whatever’s around, something bright, something that tastes like I meant it. With September 14th on the calendar and this last semester already feeling heavier than the others, I need food I can trust to be ready when I am.

Prep Time: 10 min | Cook Time: 0 min | Total Time: 10 min | Servings: 4

Ingredients

2 cans (15 oz each) chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 English cucumber, diced small
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
1/4 red onion, finely diced
1/3 cup fresh parsley, roughly chopped
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
Optional: 2 oz crumbled feta cheese

Instructions

Drain and dry the chickpeas. Drain and rinse both cans of chickpeas thoroughly. Spread them on a clean dish towel and pat dry — this helps the dressing cling instead of sliding off.
Prep the vegetables. Dice the cucumber, halve the cherry tomatoes, and finely dice the red onion. Add everything to a large bowl with the chickpeas and parsley.
Make the dressing. In a small bowl or jar, whisk together the olive oil, red wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, garlic powder, salt, and pepper until emulsified.
Toss and taste. Pour the dressing over the salad and toss well to coat. Taste and adjust salt or vinegar as needed. Add feta if using.
Rest before serving. Let the salad sit for at least 5 minutes before eating so the flavors can settle together. It gets better as it sits — leftovers the next day are excellent straight from the fridge.

Nutrition (per serving)

Favorite Chickpea Salad — The Recipe I Pack When the Semester Gets Heavy