Roasted Carrot & Chickpea Salad with Yoghurt Caper Dressing
The struggle is real when it comes to eating healthy on a daily basis. I know this because I’ve spent most of my life ‘on a diet’. The desire to eat a buttery, cheesy toasted sandwich when lunchtime rolls around hits me hard!! I mean, seriously, they are so damn delicious and you don’t even need a knife and fork - you can just sit there like a glorious little piggy, wallowing in all that cheesiness. I digress though, because this is not a recipe for a glorious toastie, but an equally delicious and healthy, non-toastie alternative. You will need cutlery though. Sorry.
It took me a while, but I have made friends with salad. Not the lettuce and tomato kind (although, they have their place too!), but the roasted vegetable variety. The thing I love about these types of salads is that you can prepare and roast your vegetables in advance (as well as the dressing) and just add your fresh salad leaves and dressing when required. And yes, also quick to make…..maybe not quite as quick as a toastie, (geez I’m really pushing the toastie aren’t I?!), but quick nonetheless. So if you’re one of those super organised, meal prep people, then you’ll like this.
Mel xoxo
PS. if you don’t have baby carrots then regular carrots will be fine - just cut them lengthways down the middle once or twice depending how big they are.
Roasted Carrot & Chickpea Salad with Yoghurt Caper Dressing
serves 2 as a meal | 4 as a side
Ingredients
1kg baby carrots (unpeeled but scrubbed, stems trimmed)
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp honey
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cumin
salt and black pepper
400g tinned chickpeas
200g mixed salad leaves
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
Dressing
100g greek style natural yoghurt
juice of half a lemon
2 tbsp capers, (rinsed if salted) and roughly chopped
1 small garlic clove, crushed
1/2 tsp honey
salt and black pepper
Garnish
fresh dill
extra virgin olive oil
Method
Preheat oven to 190C.
Place carrots into a baking dish and coat evenly with the olive oil, honey, cinnamon, cumin, salt and pepper. Roast for 25-30 mins or until caramelised and tender. Remove from the oven and add the chickpeas and toss gently to combine. Set aside until required (or refrigerate if you’re assembling later).
To make the dressing, mix all ingredients together until smooth. If you are using very thick yoghurt, you can thin out with a little water if necessary.
To assemble, lay the lettuce on your serving plate and top with the carrots and chickpeas. Scatter over the sliced onion and give it a gentle toss with your hands. Drizzle over the dressing (as little or as much as you like), scatter with fresh dill and a drizzle of olive oil. Serve immediately.
