courgette, chickpea and roast tomato salad

Continuing my thread of recipes using up what I've got in my cupboards before I move house is this delicious salad. It's straightforward to prepare and very 'Ottolenghi' in style. I had a jar of wonderful Spanish chickpeas to use that I had bought from Brindisa that are seriously good. Much creamier and quite a lot larger than what you usually get in cans. This recipe brings together several of my favourite ingredients into a tasty and satisfying salad. If you don't like one of the ingredients don't use it - make it vegan by omitting the tuna and egg, maybe add some grilled red peppers for a different flavour, boost the chilli levels, switch the herbs - basically, go with what you fancy, this is your salad. It makes a great summer supper especially if you serve it with some toasted fresh bread.



Ingredients
425g drained, cooked chickpeas
2 courgettes
3-5 tomatoes
3 eggs
olive oil
sherry vinegar or lemon juice
small bunch flat leaf parsley, chopped
1 tsp sumac
salt
pepper
1 tin tuna steak in spring water
bunch of spring onions, finely chopped
2 tsp dried or fresh dill
1 tsp dried chilli flakes (optional)

Toasted bread to serve

1. Preheat the oven to 200C, quarter the tomatoes and lightly drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and a generous amount of cracked black pepper. Roast in the oven for around 30 minutes or until they are soft and slightly golden on the edges. Meanwhile prepare the rest of the salad.
2. Preheat a griddle pan then slice the courgettes lengthways about 3-5mm thick, brush with a little olive oil mixed with black pepper then place the slices on the griddle pan for about 5 minutes on each side or until they are cooked through and have grill marks on each side. Place to the side until you're ready to assemble the dish.
3. Boil the eggs to your preferred hardness. I like them when the yolk is still a bit soft for salads. Peel and halve ready for assembly.
4. In a large bowl place the chickpeas, tuna, chopped spring onions, chilli flakes, sumac, parsley, dill, a little salt and pepper to taste and a glug each of olive oil and sherry vinegar. Mix together until evenly combined. Taste, then adjust the olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper balance to your preference. 
5. You can put this salad together any way you like I opted for a ring of courgettes round the edge of the plate topped with the roasted tomatoes. The chickpea mixture in the middle and the boiled egg halves on top. A final sprinkle of sumac over the top and it's ready to go. 

chickpea mixture

the finished salad

I'm entering this recipe in the July Four Seasons Food Challenge hosted by the lovely people at Chez Foti and Delicieux. 

russian salad / ensalada rusa

This variation on potato salad can be found in tapas bars all across Spain and never fails to satisfy my taste buds. It's not a healthy salad by any stretch of the imagination but it is a great side dish and you can adjust the quantities of any of the ingredients according to your preferences. I would almost never recommend using canned or jarred carrots or peas but in Russian salad they're the only thing that will do. I made a version cooking everything from scratch once and whilst it was a nice salad it just wasn't quite right. The key to success here is to get everything chopped to roughly the the same size. 

Ingredients Serves 6-10 as an accompaniment

1kg waxy potatoes such as cyprus, peeled and boiled whole in salted water then cut into 1cm cubes

approx 250g drained weight of tinned carrots and peas

1 small can of tuna in spring water or brine

handful of green olives in brine (approx 20), roughly chopped

decent pinch white pepper

2 hard boiled eggs, coarsely grated

4-6 tbsp good quality mayonnaise

1. In a large bowl place all the ingredients then stir together carefully until fully combined. Taste for seasoning then adjust as needed.
2. Garnish with strips of grilled red pepper, green olives, more mayonnaise or hard boiled egg halves if you wish.