recipe: garbanzo bean salad

sometimes i am really good at meal planning (i like it when that happens).  sometimes i decide what i am making as i am making it.

that is what happened this weekend.  yesterday, our church had a potluck and kickball game.  i ended up not having a key ingredient for the first thing i was going to make, so i ended up making up a recipe on the spot, throwing together a couple things we had on hand.  it ended up tasting pretty good, so i wanted to share the recipe with you all.

garbanzo bean salad

1 lb of garbanzo beans, soaked, cooked and drained (about 4 cups cooked, or 2 15oz cans of garbanzo beans)
2 tomatoes, chopped
1/2 bunch parsley, chopped
1/2 white onion, finely diced (if you don't have a white onion, leave this out.  i find brown onions to have much too strong of a flavor in dishes where they are raw. a red or purple onion might be ok, though)
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp celery salt
1/2 tsp dried basil (although fresh basil would taste better if you have it)

mix everything in a big bowl.  if you have time, refrigerate for a few hours to let the flavors meld.  but it would also taste delicious served right away.


i'm excited to finish off the leftovers for lunch today, topped with some leftover canned salmon for a protein/healthy fat/calcium boost!