Summer chickpea salad

Light and fast dish, great to take to the beach or office. The summer chickpea salad is a fresh and light dish that we can resort to on numerous occasions during hot days: as an appetizer or light second course, as a single dish to be consumed during the lunch break at the office or to take to the beach. Appetizing and colorful, the summer chickpea salad is prepared in a few simple steps and, if you choose to use precooked chickpeas, you will not even need to turn on the stove! To prepare the summer chickpea salad you can use the vegetables you prefer: to have a good balance of flavors and also a pleasant colored note I recommend you use, in addition to boiled chickpeas, cherry tomatoes, a little cucumber, rocket, some black olives and, if you like, a little onion red finely sliced. If you want you could use this recipe as a base to season a salad of rice, pasta or cereals according to your taste.

Ingredients

400 g canned chickpeas (or about 150 g dried chickpeas)

300 g cherry tomatoes

150 g cucumbers

50 g rocket

20 black olives

1red onion

4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

salt

Pepper

Preparation

To prepare the summer chickpea salad if you use dried chickpeas you must first keep them soaking for a long time, at least 12 hours for younger chickpeas, even 24 hours for older ones. Then immerse them in a pot of cold water and cook them for about 45 minutes from the moment of boiling over low heat. Alternatively, you can boil them in a pressure cooker for 20 minutes. In both cases, add salt only at the end of cooking. Drain the chickpeas and let them cool. If you use canned pre-cooked chickpeas, drain them from the storage liquid and rinse them thoroughly in a colander. Wash the cherry tomatoes and cut them into slices. Wash the cucumber and cut it into thin slices. To make it more digestible you can peel it. Wash the rocket thoroughly, dry it and chop it with your hands. Cut the red onion into very thin slices. Pitt the olives. Combine all the ingredients in a bowl. Emulsify the oil with salt and pepper in a glass, then use the emulsion to season the summer chickpea salad. Serve the summer chickpea salad immediately or keep it in the refrigerator for a couple of days at most.