Garbanzo the Greek

A vegan greek salad recipe by Damon Harper

This recipe arose out of my sudden urge one night for a good greek salad, my inability to find an adequate vegan recipe for one, and my decision that garbanzo beans would make a good feta cheese replacer. As it was a completely freeform endeavour and i'd never made any kind of greek salad before, i was pleasantly surprised at how well it turned out!

Ingredients:

Dressing:

• 5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 4 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons dijon mustard
• 3 or 4 small cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
• 1 tablespoon basil
• 2 teaspoons oregano
• 1 teaspoon rosemary, crushed
• 1/2 teaspoon ground thyme

Salad:

• 1 or 2 19-oz. cans garbanzo beans
• 3 tomatoes
• 1 long cucumber
• 2 green bell peppers
• 1 medium onion
• 1 to 1 1/2 cups calamata olives
• 2 or more tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley

Combine dressing ingredients, shake well and allow to sit. If your olives came packed in brine, add a bit of that for extra olive flavour. Play with the ingredients; the above measurements approximate how much i think i used of each ingredient, but i'm not certain. If you're feeling conservative, you might want to cut down the amounts a bit, as the above should leave you with plenty of dressing left in the bottom of the bowl -- the mark of a truly great greek salad!

Chop cucumber, tomato, peppers and onion in roughly 1/2 to 1 inch cubes. Separate onion layers after cubing. Combine in bowl with olives, parsley and garbanzo beans. The "1 or 2 cans" depends on just how much you like garbanzo beans in their own right; i originally tried one can, which was adequate, but since i love the things so much i shortly added another.

Pour dressing over salad. Toss well to coat vegetables. Allow to sit in refrigerator for several hours. Voilà!

This makes a pretty large salad, that could probably serve around eight people as a side dish. That's my guess, anyway... I simply kept it in the fridge and ate it for dinner for several nights!