Celery & Chickpea Salad ♥

RECIPE for CELERY & CHICKPEA SALAD

Hands-on time: 25 minutes

Time to table: 25 minutes

Makes about 5 cups

To avoid a watery salad, rinse and drain the chickpeas before making the vinaigrette. But then do go ahead and mix up the vinaigrette, that way, the salad ingredients can be dropped right into the salad bowl to soak a bit while preparation continues. It's the small things, often!

LEMON VINAIGRETTE

Zest of a lemon (don't skip this!)

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard or another good mustard

1 teaspoon honey

1 teaspoon minced garlic

2 tablespoons good olive oil

Salt & pepper (be generous!)

SALAD STUFF

1 15-ounce (425g) can chickpeas, rinsed and drained

4 ribs celery, trimmed and sliced thin on the diagonal (about 300g)

1 cup celery leaves, chopped fine (or about 1/2 cup parsley works well too)

2 green onions, white and green parts both, chopped fine

2 ounces (57g) feta, crumbled

OTHER ADD-INS, OPTIONAL

1 ear corn (a nice summery addition, How to Cut Corn Off the Cob: Keeping All Ten Fingers, Capturing Every Delicious Kernel and Every Drop of Sweet Corn "Milk")

Sun-dried tomatoes, minced

Mini peppers, sliced thin

TOPPINGS, OPTIONAL

Sunflower seeds

Avocado slices, for garnish

Tomato wedges, for garnish

LEMON VINAIGRETTE In a bowl large enough to hold the entire salad, whisk all ingredients except the olive oil, then whisk it in too until the vinaigrette begins to emulsify. Season to taste: do be generous, remember you're seasoning a lot of vegetables!

SALAD STUFF Prep the vegetables, stirring them into the Lemon Vinaigrette as they're prepped. Add any Add-Ins, then stir well. Transfer to a serving bowl or platter and sprinkle or garnish with any Toppings.

MAKE-AHEAD Definitely! Make the salad up to a day ahead, though if it were me, I would probably stir in a bit more feta right before serving, just to freshen it up a little.

ALANNA'S TIPS & KITCHEN NOTES

NO CELERY LEAVES? Darn the grocery-store produce people! They chop off the tender celery leaves, they do tend to deteriorate first, even when the celery ribs themselves last for a long while in the fridge, especially when stored in their original bags. It's the reason I watch specially for celery bunches that still have their leaves, knowing that the bitter leaves will soon be on a salad plate! But don't stress if your celery has no leaves,

BIG BAGS OF CELERY On occasion, I'll buy a sealed bag of celery from Sam's Club or Trader Joe's. This celery will never have leaves and it's good for cooking but really, isn't wonderful for fresh salads. To my taste, it's just not fresh enough.

MELTING GARLIC To help the garlic to almost melt into salads, I've been grating cloves with a microplane, the same one I use for lemon zest. At first, I worried that the garlic flavor wouldn't wash off completely, ruining future lemon zest. So far, no problem! I do rinse it well just after grating the garlic though.