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Marinated Chickpeas with Slow-Roasted Red Peppers & Feta

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Your biggest challenge is going to be resisting the temptation to devour the entire pan of jammy red peppers & caramelized garlic before they hit the plate!

These warm chickpeas served up in a Greek style marinade with melty feta are the perfect spring transition dish – enjoy them on their own or wrapped up in a pita, gyro/souvlaki style, with tzatziki.  D’lish.

Working from Dehydrated/Dry Chickpeas

Chickpeas star in this recipe and I encourage you to cook them from the dry bean for a couple reasons.  First off, you can’t beat the texture, flavor and freshness of cooking from scratch (nothing like opening up a can of grey, mushy chickpeas, yum yum — this happens to me at least half the time).  Having control over the cooking time allows you to decide how soft or firm you like your beans (mushy works well for hummus but not as well in salad) and, significantly, working with warm, freshly cooked chickpeas in this recipe allows the marinade to absorb much better into the bean (a bit like fresh cooked pasta, it’s ideal to mix in the dressing for pasta salad while the pasta is still warm/porous — it’s like the pores of the food are open to receive… a little steamé).  As a bonus, dehydrated beans are less expensive and they don’t require pre-soaking or fussing — they just need to boil stovetop while you tend to other things in the kitchen.

New to cooking chickpeas? You can follow my detailed instructions for cooking chickpeas here: Creamy Delicious Hummus.

The Slow-Roasted Red Peppers

I’ve talked about these beauties before — my sister introduced them to us about a decade ago when our family visited for a ski holiday in the Canadian Rockies, and we’ve been making them ever since! (when your college-aged son texts you for the recipe on a Friday night, you know you’re on to something good).

Greek Flavors

There are 3 salads I find myself craving over and over again – my trifecta includes: Caesar, Green Papaya & Greek (they are all on the blog in one form or another).

The combination of tomato, Kalamata olive, feta, red onion, cucumber from the tzatziki and that tangy lemon-oregano dressing is addictive in the best kinda way.

Pita with Tzatziki

Our family really enjoys these chickpeas tucked into a pita with tzatziki and warmed up in the oven. I’ve included the recipe for the quick tzatziki I use as well as a cooking method.  If you prefer to go without the pita, you can simply serve as a salad with a dollop of tzatziki on the side or skip it all together and just enjoy these marinated chickpeas on their own salad style or as a side.

Enjoy Day Of Or Reheat

These marinated chickpeas are ideal to enjoy after assembly — think warm, sticky, jammy scrumptiousness — but will also last in the fridge for a few days.  The chickpeas will continue to absorb liquid over time though so you won’t get the same juicy warm experience direct from the fridge but you can re-heat to release some of those juices again before serving.  Works well.


5.0 from 6 reviews
Marinated Chickpeas with Slow-Roasted Red Pepper & Feta (Vegetarian)
 
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Plump chickpeas intermingled with slow roasted red peppers and caramelized garlic in a Greek style dressing tossed with melty feta.
Author:
Serves: 4-6
Ingredients
  • Chickpea Mixture:
  • 720 g (3 cups) cooked chickpeas (from 1+1/4 cup dry)
  • 2 large red bell peppers, cut into strips
  • ⅓ (or so) red onion, sliced thin
  • 15 (or so) garlic cloves, (I'm using peeled garlic), cut in half or quartered if really large but not too thin or they will burn
  • 110 g (about 4 oz) feta of choice
  • 60 g (about 2 oz) pitted Kalamata olives, sliced
  • 10 (or so) cherry tomatoes, sliced

  • Marinade:
  • ⅓ cup olive oil
  • 2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
  • 1+ ½ Tbsp red wine vinegar
  • 1 tsp dry oregano
  • ½ tsp dry basil
  • ¾ tsp salt or to taste
  • pinch pepper
  • ½ Tbsp honey (be sure to whisk to integrate)
  • pinch of fresh dill, chopped, for garnish

  • Easy Tzatziki:
  • 360 g (about 1+ ½ cups plain yogurt), suggest using at least 2% fat
  • 1 organic cucumber, peeled, grated and strained (should be at least 1 cup) place grated cucumber in a sieve/colander and use the back of a spoon or your hand to press out moisture/water into sink
  • 2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • drizzle honey
  • ⅓ tsp sea salt or to taste
  • 2 Tbsp fresh dill, chopped
Instructions
  1. Cook the chickpeas in a large pot with lots of water until desired consistency is achieved (for this recipe, I prefer the chickpeas to have some texture - not too mushy - so I aim for al dente, it takes over 1 hour).
  2. Meanwhile heat oven to 300F and prep the marinade by whisking together: olive oil, lemon juice, red wine vinegar, oregano, basil, salt, pepper and honey (making sure all the honey is integrated and not sticking to the bottom). Taste the marinade, making any flavor adjustments.
  3. Place the cooked chickpeas (ideally still warm) in a large flat base casserole dish and intermingle with tomatoes, onion, olives and half of the feta.
  4. Pour the well-mixed marinade over top, tossing gently to combine.
  5. While the chickpea mixture marinades at room temperature, spread the sliced peppers out on a baking sheet with the garlic. Drizzle with 1.5-2 Tbsp olive oil and add a couple shakes of salt, intermingling to combine and then spreading out to roast.
  6. Roast at 300F for 45 minutes-1 hour until the peppers have softened/wilted and the garlic has browned/caramelized but not burnt - keep an eye out.
  7. Carefully remove the roasted peppers and garlic and add them to the chickpea mixture, tossing to combine. Serve with remaining feta as a salad, side or tucked into a pita with tzatziki. Garnish with fresh dill, as desired.
  8. For the Tzatziki: combine the grated and strained cucumber with yogurt and add: lemon juice, garlic, salt, honey and fresh dill, mixing to combine. Taste and make any seasoning adjustments desired.
  9. Place generous amount of tzatziki in pita with chickpea mixture, wrap in foil and bake at 350F for about 15-20 until warmed through. Enjoy!
  10. This dish is ideal to enjoy warm right after assembly but the chickpea mixture can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days -- the chickpeas will continue to absorb the marinade/dressing -- to release the juices, simply warm before serving.

Comments

  1. Having never cooked chickpeas before I am curious if I have to soak them first? Or are they good to go without the pre soak? Thanks. Easter dinner!

    Reply

  2. Tellement bon! Je garde précieusement cette délicieuse recette. Le goût est fabuleux. Il est certain que ce sera à refaire régulièrement. Merci 😊

    Reply

  3. Absolutely delicious. Two of us gobbled up almost all of the pan. It will definitely be on my potluck list of favorites to share this summer.

    Reply

  4. SO glad you sent a reminder about this recipe, because I intend to make it tomorrow, sounds absolutely perfect!

    Reply

  5. The textures and flavours are perfect for the warmish days we’ve been blessed with. Love, love the colours too. As luck would have it, I have everything to make this tasty dish.

    Reply

  7. Oh my goodness!!! This looks so good and the combination of flavors is one of my favorite! In fact you have a couple of combinations going on here with the basic mixture and the Tzatziki. Thank you suggesting the use of dry beans rather than canned. I’ve never been a fan of canned beans, especially I’ve quit eaten garbanzo because I dislike the canned beans so much. However, just last week I purchased a pound of dried garbanzos and was just waiting for the right recipe to come along and here it is. Thanks so much Kelly! Your timing is impeccable. :)

    Reply

    • love it! thanks MJ — yeah, you have so much more control over the outcome cooking beans from scratch (and the taste is undeniably better) — depending on schedules the extra time requirement can be a bit of an inconvenience, I try to double the batches etc to make the most of it.

      Reply

  8. This looks amazing and sounds like a winner. You’ve even inspired me to cook my own chickpeas!  Working from home makes this doable, thank you for your healthy recipes and for making vegetarian food look so damn good.

    Reply

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