I love salads for lunch, but the issue is always the dressing. With lettuce based salads the issue tends to be either finding a container to put the dressing in and hoping it doesn’t spill, or pre-dressing the salad and hoping the lettuce holds up. Some salads also leave my hungry a few hours later so I want something that will hold me until dinner. This week’s option – chickpea quinoa salad.

This recipe is based on a recipe from the New York Times. I’ve changed a few things, but I’ve also made this as written before and it is still fabulous. This dish comes together very quickly, especially if you keep cooked chickpeas and quinoa in your freezer. If you don’t, go with canned chickpeas and just make the quinoa as you chop the celery and make the dressing. Sumac (I generally sub Zatar) can be hard to find, but if you have a spice shop, they should carry it – if not, try Amazon. Really, you can find just about anything on Amazon. The recipe is best with the dill and chives in it, but if I don’t have them on hand, I just leave them out and it is still delicious. I also never include the mint. I’m just not a fan of mint in my salads.