The Little Garbanzo Bean That Could

Saturday evening, I had a few people over for some snacks and, yes, I confess, to clear out the liquor cabinet. Discovering the opulence of 19th century country clubs, we finished off the bottle of Pimms that mysteriously appeared eons ago.

Instead of my regular opulent buffets, I made minimal snacks. I thought my crowning achievement of the evening was the tzatziki. Made from regular yogurt, strained to achieve the right consistency with hand grated cucumber, this was a sauce that made me proud. This would have been a sauce that would have received more attention had I remembered to buy bread. Dipped in meatballs, tzatziki is not much to write home about. The secret star was the chickpea salad. This salad was more of an apology to the vegetarians but the omnivores were asking me about the recipe afterwards. Sadly, it's not much of a recipe, but, as an added bonus, there's a free recipe for Tzatziki available today.

Chickpea Salad
1 can of chick peas, drained & rinsed
1 red onion, chopped
100g cherry tomatoes, quartered
juice of 1 lemon
3 drops of white balsamic vinegar
4 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp chopped parsley
1/2 tsp dijon mustard
pinch chili powder
salt to taste

Mix chick peas, onions and tomatoes.
Add all other ingredients to a small jam jar. Close lid & shake jam jar. Pour contents of jar over chick peas & allow to sit in the fridge for at least 45 minutes.

Tzatziki
2 containers of plain yogurt (150g each)
1/2 cucumber
1/4 tsp chopped garlic
salt to taste

Line a sieve with cheesecloth or paper towels. Fill with yogurt and allow to drip until the yogurt has achieved a cream cheese-like consistency (at least 2 hours). In the meantime, grate the cucumber finely & allow place the shreds in another sieve, allowing the water to drip out.

When the cucumber is moist but not dripping and when the yogurt is thick, add the two together, along with garlic & salt. Allow the mixture to marinate in the fridge for at least 2 hours. Ensure you have bread to serve with it.


I was really proud of myself for making a tzatziki. Now I'm proud of the little Garbanzo beans that won over so many fans.