Meera Sodha’s vegetarian recipe for quinoa and chickpea salad with red cabbage, pomegranate and pistachios | Meera Sodha recipes
Every now and then, something comes along in the food industry that is “better than sliced bread”, and right now I would say that thing is jarred chickpeas. Due to the way they’re processed, cooked at a lower temperature and for a shorter time, they tend to be softer than tinned and ready to eat in salads (a tinned chickpea, on the other hand, might need a five-minute boil to get to the same degree of softness). In any case, it’s safe to say that this innovation has led to an increase in my eating of chickpeas in salads, and today’s dish is a recent favourite.
Quinoa and chickpea salad with red cabbage, pomegranate and pistachios
This makes a light dinner or substantial lunch. Toss the chickpeas and feta through the salad at the last minute, to prevent them getting stained pink by the cabbage and pomegranate molasses.
Prep 15 min
Cook 20 min
Serves 4 for lunch
175g quinoa – I use a mix of black, red and white
250g red cabbage (about ½ cabbage), cored and finely shredded
Fine sea salt
570g jarred chickpeas, drained – I like Bold Bean
40g flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
40g shelled pistachios, roughly chopped
200g vegetarian feta, broken into chickpea-sized pieces
6 tbsp olive oil
1 lemon, juiced to get 2 tbsp
3½ tbsp pomegranate molasses
¾ tsp pul biber, or aleppo pepper
Put the quinoa in a medium saucepan for which you have a lid, add 300ml cold water, cover and bring to a boil. Turn down the heat to low, simmer for 12 minutes, then take off the heat and put to one side, still covered.
Put the shredded cabbage and a quarter-teaspoon of salt in a large bowl, then pummel the cabbage with your hands until it’s wilted and reduced in volume. Add the cooked quinoa (it will have soaked up all the liquid), chickpeas, parsley and pistachios, then sprinkle the feta over the top.
In a small bowl, combine the oil, lemon juice, pomegranate molasses, pul biber and three-quarters of a teaspoon of salt, mix, mix, mix until really well combined, then pour over the salad, toss and serve at once.
