Coronation Chickpea Salad in a Jar

I finally bought myself a Kilner jar for my lunches! At this time of year I usually start back on the soups, but I’ve still been really enjoying salads so I decided to continue them for a little longer. Salads can be fine for the colder weather if you include things like “autumnal slaw” made with red cabbage and carrots etc or recipes such as this curried chickpeas salad!

When I was younger I worked at a bakery where we were allowed to eat whatever we liked on our breaks, back then I was at the age where I could eat whatever I liked and not an inch would show on my stomach (I miss those days!) so my routine lunch was a coronation chicken baguette, sausage roll, jam donut and a hot chocolate. Looking back I just can’t believe I used to eat that every single shift! Before even going vegetarian I had given up all four of those things due to wanting to lose weight (when it finally hit me and just looking at a donut made me put on a pound), and I have never missed the sausage rolls or jam donuts but I have missed coronation chicken! It was so creamy and sweet so I’ve decided to make my own version, using a much healthier chickpea base.

This Chickpea salad is perfect piled into a kilner jar on top of some crunchy fresh veggies such as gem lettuce, celery, grated carrot, peppers and radishes. I also topped it with my usual alfalfa sprouts and some avocado slices and it was delicious. I love having my salad in a jar now, it’s a nice way to layer up lots of different flavours and so far I have experimented with layering different hummous flavours, falafel, salad veggies, beetroot, quinoa or rice salads and I’m even tempted to do a recipe I saw in Hugh’s RiverCottage Veg cookbook where you fill the jar full of quick cook noodles, sliced stir fry veg and some ginger and spices and then you add boiling water to make a “quick and healthy pot noodle”. It sounds fab!

Serves 4:

1 Can Cooked Chickpeas
8-10 dried apricots (approx 50g)
Handful raisins
3-4 Spring Onions
1 tspn Chilli Powder
3-4 heaped tblsp Dairy Free Plan Yoghurt
1 heaped tbslp Mango Chutney
Bunch Fresh Coriander

Slice the spring onions and coriander and cut the apricots into small pieces. Mix all the ingredients together and taste, if needed then add more yoghurt or mango chutney untill you have a consistency and sweetness that you like! I find that vegan yoghurt can be a bit sweet but in a recipe like this it doesn’t matter as it’s meant to be quite sweet!

This recipe was originally posted as a wrap back in February but I love it so much I am bringing it back again as a salad! I have entered this recipe into Diet, Dessert and Dogs Wellness Weekend event.