Summer Chickpea Salad with vegan “Feta Cheese“
A chickpea salad is an absolute classic in summer. It tastes fresh, fills you up, has infinite variations and lasts for a whole Sunday picnic. Also, even statistics show that the chickpea bowl is often empty first at a picnic. Therefore, it was literally obligatory to tell you our favorite recipe in our picnic week. In this case, roasted chickpeas, mango and vegan feta play the leading roles. However, it's not just the roasted chickpeas that add crunch to the recipe, but also roasted almonds, which you can swap out with other nuts if you like. It gets fruity thanks to the mango and onion. Cucumbers and radishes provide enough freshness.
As a "cherry on the top," we recommend you prepare our feta from tofu in herb brine. It is best to prepare it the day before. This way, you can quickly mix all the ingredients for the salad and top it with the tofu feta. In addition, the "feta" has a little more time to absorb the flavors of the herbs and tastes much more intense. If you don’t have enough time, you can, of course, also use vegan feta from the supermarket – but those are often not available in herb brine. We use the brine twice in this recipe: Once to marinate the tofu and also as part of the dressing. So if you use a vegan feta from the supermarket without the brine, feel free to add more olive oil and herbs to the dressing. You can find the recipe for vegan tofu feta in herb brine here. But we've also added it directly below the recipe, so you don't have to switch the website at all. And now: Roll out the picnic blanket, there is chickpea salad!
For the preparation of the vegan feta and the transport of the salad, we used the Ripple Jars by Lieblingsglas, which look super special because of their grooves! Not only are they great for marinating vegan feta or storing food, but also for freezing, fermenting and canning. Or as a jar for your next iced coffee, of course! There are also quite a few accessories to go along with the Ripple Jars, such as a lemon squeezer, spiral slicer, sprouting lid, and more! In addition, the glasses are dishwasher safe, come with an airtight lid, are heat and cold-resistant and are smell- and taste-neutral. They are available in 250 ml, 400 ml and 600 ml sizes and all have a wide mouth opening so you can clean them easily.
Vegan "Feta Cheese" in a Herb Brine
Ingredients
- 200 g (7 oz) tofu
- 100–150 ml (0.5–0.66 cups) olive oil
- 2 tbsp dried basil
- 2 tbsp dried oregano
- 1 tbsp dried thyme
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp light miso paste (optional)
- 2 garlic cloves
Instructions
Cut the tofu into bite-sized cubes.
Into a screw-top jar, add 5 tbsp olive oil and mix with dried basil, oregano, thyme and salt. Optionally, stir in miso paste.
Peel garlic cloves, crush them lightly with the back of a knife and slice. Add the garlic slices and the tofu cubes to the jar as well, top them with olive oil and shake well so that the tofu is evenly coated with the herbs.
Put the jar in the refrigerator and serve after 24 hours at the earliest. The tofu keeps for up to five days. In between, keep turning or shaking the jar so that everything marinates evenly.
Summer Chickpea Salad with Vegan "Feta Cheese"
Ingredients
For the salad:
- 200 g (7 oz) vegan feta in herb brine
- 1 red onion
- 150 g (5.3 oz) mango
- 100 g (3.5 oz) radish
- 150 g (5.3 oz) cucumber
- 7–8 dried tomatoes from a jar
- 10 g (0.35 oz) fresh mint
- 10 g (0.35 oz) fresh parsley
- 150 g (5.3 oz) almonds
- 400 g (14 oz) chickpeas
- 2 tablespoons neutral vegetable oil
- paprika powder
- cayenne pepper
- salt
- pepper
For the dressing:
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- salt
- pepper
Instructions
Tip: Ideally, you marinate the vegan feta cheese one day before. So it can absorb all the flavors better and tastes more intensely.
Peel the red onion, halve it and cut it into fine rings. Peel the mango, remove the flesh from the core and dice. Also, cut the radish, cucumber and dried tomatoes into bite-sized pieces.
Finely chop the herbs and roast the almonds in a pan without oil for a few minutes and then roughly chop them.
Drain the chickpeas and fry them with oil in a pan for about 5–7 minutes until they are crispy. Season with salt, pepper, paprika and cayenne pepper.
Put all ingredients into a bowl, mix and top with the vegan "feta". There is no real dressing for this salad, because the oil of the sun-dried tomatoes and the brine already add some "dressing". Therefore, you simply add olive oil and lemon juice to the salad and season with salt and pepper.
