The mint and basil are what give this salad its distinctive flavor. We have both in our garden most of the year. This salad is not changed very much from this recipe at a comprehensive website I’ve been browsing recently, on Indian vegetarian cooking. So far I’ve made it twice, once for lunch when a friend came over and the other time for a dinner party with several friends. On the second occasion, I knew that one of the guests didn’t care for garbanzos, so I served them on the side as you can see in the little image to the left.

Ingredients:

FOR THE SALAD

• 1 cup boiled garbanzos
• 1 yellow pepper
• 4 radishes
• 1/2 cucumber
• 1 onion
• 1 tomato
• 3 sprigs fresh mint
• 3 sprigs basil (or used dried basil if you don’t have fresh)
• 3 leaves lettuce

FOR THE DRESSING

• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 3 T olive oil
• 1 T  lemon juice

Method

Prepare the garbanzos ahead of time by soaking them overnight and then cooking them (I use a slow cooker, but a pressure cooker or a regular saucepan is fine too) until tender. I do a big batch at a time and then bag up the cooled ones I don’t have an immediate use for, in my freezer. Alternatively, you can buy a can of the beans. Organic is always best.

Prepare the salad in the bowl where you will serve it. Use all the ingredients given above except the lettuce.

Dress the salad with the ingredients given above or with a good prepared dressing. I used Annie’s Roasted Red Pepper dressing one time.

Put a plate over the salad bowl to act as a temporary lid and put the salad in the refrigerator for the flavors to blend for half an hour or more.

Shred the lettuce, add to salad, mix it all up, and serve.

And if you are into Pinterest, this image of the garbanzo salad with mint and basil is sized for there!