Summer Salads: Chickpea and Raisin Salad

A few weeks ago, in between holidays while we were still lavishing the dog days of summer, we had a quick Family Dinner with my sis and her boyfriend. Life was pretty hectic around here so dinner was brought to us: C planned the menu, brought the ingredients and cooked the meal! That's my kind of dinner:) Thank you!




Chickpea and Raisin Salad

The salad is super simple to make and absolutely delicious.....the recipe makes a TON and we still argued over who was going to get more:) Served with Feta (grilled on the BBQ in olive oil and Thyme), pita, and grilled veggie & local turkey sausage skewers it was a lovely, homey summer dinner.

Ingredients
1 cup of raisins
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
2 tsp of sugar
3 15.5 ounce cans of chickpeas, rinsed
1 cup of fresh cilantro (or more!!)
4 green onions, thinly sliced
1/3 cup of olive oil
1/2 tsp ground cumin
Kosher salt and black pepper

Directions
1. In a small saucepan, combine the raisins, vinegar, and sugar. Bring just to a simmer; remove from heat and let cool.

2. In a large bowl, toss the chickpeas, cilantro, green onion, and raisin mixture with the oil, cumin, salt and pepper.

[All recipes from the June 2011 issue of Real Simple Magazine]