I <3 spring!
My mom brought me over a beautiful Hyacinth plant the other day. I had no idea the blooms were so fragrant! My entire kitchen is lit up with this beautiful scent. In fact it’s the first thing everyone smells when they walk through the front door! I love it!
Its beautiful fragrance reminds me of lilacs – which then takes me back to our childhood home when all the lilac bushes would bloom in the spring. There’s something so special about spring. The freshness of the air is matched by my desire to eat fresh foods and these days I find myself particularly gravitating towards salads.
I’m also on a major curry kick… red curry, Panang curry, green curry, whatever, it’s all curry-licious to me! So I got to thinking about how I could spring up the simple bowl of chickpeas that I had in the refrigerator.
I got to experimenting and of course taste testing. Many thanks to my girlfriends and of course the hubs and kids who always volunteer to be taste testers. Sometimes they really don’t know what they’re getting themselves into but after a few tweeks, this vegetarian salad in all its curryness is freshness in a bowl! Oh! In case you’re a little curry shy, the curry in this recipe is not overwhelming but rather a strong suggestion. It can of course be tweeked to suit your preferences.
- 2 cups cooked chickpeas
- 4 dates - quartered lengthwise and chopped
- 1/4 cup chopped or slivered almonds (soak your nuts and lose the gas)
- 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 tbsp honey
- 3 tsp curry
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- salt to taste
- 2 tbsp chopped green onions
- 1 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
- Toss everything together.
- Taste and adjust seasoning.
- Store in fridge. It tastes even better the next morning after the flavors have had a chance to dance together. 🙂
