Easy breezy summer salad: Avoca roasted peppers and chickpeas

Like anything worth its while, blogging is one of those adventures that takes time, work and tinkering to really find your groove and get things exactly how you like them. Of course, then another few months go by, and you’ve changed your mind entirely. It’s the mark of any creative endeavor I suppose. Switcheroos and tinkering are just part of the territory.

This recipe is a remake of one that I posted when Splash of Something first began, back in the olden days of 2010, when I was but a wee lass typing away from our happy two-bedroom abode in Columbia, Mo. Oh, how life changes in two and a half years. But that’s another story. This is the story of a salad.

A few weeks back, during one of my periodic tinkering-with-the-blog-design sessions, I added the dandy little widget at the right that features photos of the most popular posts of the day. For the most part, the widget is populated by more recent posts, which means the photos tend to blend nicely style-wise. The exception, however, has been the image of the original posting of this recipe, taken way back before we learned the merits of natural lighting, the importance of planning shots beforehand or the there-is-a-such-thing-as-too-close phenomenon of food photography. To be honest, it didn’t bother me when the old photo showed up. I like to think of the older images as just part of the progression. But poor Jared, who took the original photo, was haunted by it every time it showed up on the sidebar. “There it is again,” he’d say quietly, shaking his head in self-defeat. Then he’d walk sullenly into the distance.

No, no, it was never quite so dire. But I made a promise to make the salad again, and here I am making good on it.

The really wonderful thing about revisiting these old recipes is the chance to eat them again and dabble a bit until they’re even yummier than you left them. This is a summertime favorite that I’d all but forgotten about, and I’m so happy that Jared’s photo aversion could lead us back to something so delicious. If you’re looking for a simple summer salad, I hope you’ll give this one a try. I shall never let it fall out of rotation again!

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Roasted Red Pepper and Chickpea Salad
Adapted slightly from Avoca Salads 

• 4 red peppers, cut in thick strips
• 6 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 14-ounce cans chickpeas, rinsed and drained
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• juice of 1 lemon
• ¼ to ½ cup flat-leaf parsley, chopped
• 1 bunch scallions, chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Toss red pepper strips in 2 tablespoons olive oil, and roast for 10 to 15 minutes, turning occasionally. Transfer peppers to a bowl, and cover.

Heat remaining olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat, and add chickpeas. Toss in the oil, and heat through for 5 minutes. Add garlic and spices, and cook for another 2 to 3 minutes, or until spices lose their raw aroma. Season with salt and pepper as you go, and taste along the way.

Transfer chickpeas to a bowl, add pepper strips, and season with lemon juice. Add parsley and scallions, and toss.

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How has your cooking/baking/blogging changed over the years? Are you apt to revisit old favorites, or are you all new, all the time? I’d love to hear about it!

XO,
Katrina