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Not so long ago, I fell down a hole on the internet and landed on a page on Mob’s website entitled A Brief Investigation into Chopped Salads. This sentence, in particular, caught my attention: “According to Jeff Gordinier, food & drink writer for Esquire, ‘chopping intensifies the pleasure of a salad’ Perhaps it was just food clickbait, I thought – but perhaps it was also true? I tested out the theory (see today’s recipe) and can confirm first-hand that there is great pleasure to be had in both chopping ingredients to sling with abandon into a bowl, and in munching on a festival of textures and flavours all in the one mouthful.
Chopped salad with chickpeas, Tenderstem and miso
Prep 15 min
Cook 30 min
Serves 4-6
200g quinoa
Fine sea salt
300g Tenderstem, chopped into 1½cm pieces
Extra-virgin olive oil
400g tin chickpeas, well drained
5cm x 2cm piece fresh root ginger, peeled and finely grated
4 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp white miso paste
70g roasted whole almonds, roughly chopped
150g frozen petit pois, defrosted
250g red cabbage, cut into 1cm dice
1 baby gem lettuce, cut into 3cm pieces
30g parsley (or basil), leaves picked, finely chopped
Hummus, to serve (optional)
Put the quinoa in a medium saucepan for which you have a lid, add 400ml cold water and a half-teaspoon of salt, cover the pan and turn on the heat to high. Bring to a boil, turn down the heat to low and simmer for 12 minutes. Take off the heat and put to one side, still covered.
While the quinoa is cooking, put a large, wide pan for which you have a lid on a medium heat and, when hot, add the broccoli and three tablespoons of water, pop on the lid, leave to cook for three or four minutes, until tender, then drain.
Put two tablespoons of oil in the same pan on a high heat, until hot, then add the chickpeas so they sit in a single layer and leave to cook for five minutes. Shake well, cook for another five minutes, then take off the heat and sprinkle over an eighth of a teaspoon of salt.
To make the dressing, put the ginger, rice vinegar, miso, half a teaspoon of salt and 120ml extra-virgin olive oil in a bowl and whisk well.
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Put the cooked Tenderstem, almonds, peas, cabbage, lettuce and parsley in a large bowl, add the chickpeas, quinoa and all the dressing, and toss really well. Season again to taste, and serve with a dollop of hummus on the side, if you like.
