It all started nine months ago!  I met him last year and fell head over heals in love with him  and have been having an affair ever since.   This affair started late spring or early summer of last year. I have met him before but on this encounter, I fell in love with him and could not stop thinking about him. Since then, I have been dying to confess it here and I started writing about it many times but never got to finish it.  But this morning, I sat down to let it out as I could not keep it to myself any longer. I have not mentioned it to  Mr.U yet!

Update: First 5 pictures updated on Jan 24th, 2014. In these pictures I have lettuce on the bottom and can hardly see any greens. In my old pictures, I tossed the salad and then took the pictures and henceforth more greens are visible.

Ever since this affair started, I met him for breakfast, for lunch, for tea and sometimes, even for dinner. Last year, since I was busy traveling and having visitors over my place, it was an on and off affair. I obviously had to break it off when I was traveling or when I had company at home.  For the past 2 months, since I do not have any guests at home, I have resumed my affair!   I think it is about time I make this confession.  Lot of questions might be racing through your mind now and you all must be wondering what has gotten into me; why I am having this affair and who this person is?  Well, when I tell you about him, believe me, you will fall in love with him too.  I am not good at describing people and things and I will get straight to the point. I am talking about Mr. Chickpeas, my new legume love affair!

Yes, I am talking about chickpeas!  I fell in love with this legume few month ago and whenever I am hungry, I go to my freezer to make something with it. When the affair first started, I use to make choley for breakfast, add some to my salad during lunch, and at tea time, make a chat with it. Nowadays, I have it only for lunch and as an evening snack. It is high in protein and very filling. Whenever I am hungry, I just add some chili powder, salt, lime juice and sometimes chat masala, and my chickpeas snack is ready in a jiffy.

I usually cook chickpeas in bulk and store it in small Ziploc freezer bags. This way, all I need to do is thaw a small amount in the microwave for 30 seconds and chickpeas is ready to use. Yesterday, I made chickpeas salad for lunch and served it with grilled salmon. Yes, it was grilled salmon again! I have been making grilled salmon a lot these days 🙂

Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Serves: 2

Printable Recipe

• 5 Leaves Lettuce sliced to desired size
• ½ cup red onion sliced and diced
• 6 baby carrots or ¼ cup sliced
• 1 Kirby Cucumber diced
• 1 cup cooked Chickpeas
• Vinaigrette
  • 1½ tbsp Lemon Juice
  • 1½ tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
  • ¼ Chili Powder
  • 1/8 tsp Black Pepper Powder
  • ½  tsp  chopped or crushed Garlic
  • Salt to taste

• Wash and cut the vegetable.  I had 3 grape tomatoes in the fridge, so went ahead and added those 3 to the salad.
• Mix all the ingredients listed under vinaigrette and whisk it.
• Drizzle it over the salad just before serving.

I am sending this beautiful, colorful salad to Divya’s Show me Your Salad.  I am also sending this chickpeas salad to Rachel’s My Legume Love Affair: 20th Helping, started by Susan.  This salad also makes its entry to Healthy Inspirations Event: Salads.

I am sending this salad to Only – Salads event started by Pari.