Chickpea, Green Bean and Tuna Salad

Chickpea green bean salad
The Husband and I are on a reduced calorie diet (a version of the 5:2 diet which I will tell you about soooon) and are eating a lot more vegetarian meals and we LOVE this salad. We have it for lunch and this is enough for 4 people (and we are big eaters).

I've adapted it to have less calories by reducing the oil as far as possible (see * note below). I've got it down to about 800calories for the lot, so 200 calories per person. Try it either way and I know you'll love it too.

*I've put stars next to these items as it's up to you how much you'd like to use. We don't like oily salads (and we're on diet...!), so I use as little oil in my dressings as possible and I use tuna in water rather than oil, but some people loathe this. I don't drain my tuna in water, but use it as part of the dressing, but again, this is your choice. If you prefer your dressing more oily (oilier? Is this a real word!?), then leave out the water and use more oil. And vice versa.

I like to use soy sauce in dressings rather than salt, but it does make a darker colour, so use salt if you prefer.

You could also skip the frying of the chickpeas step and save 1 tsp-tbsp of oil, but I think this “firms” them up and adds to the flavour of the dish.

I used the flat Judas green beans because I love them and because they are readily available at this time of the year here in Spain and Portugal, but regular green runner beans are equally good.

THE RECIPE

1 jar / tin (400g) chickpeas / garbanzo beans, drained
¼ – ½ tsp herbes d'Provence
1 tsp-tbsp veg or olive oil *
3 cloves garlic, minced or cut in slivers
500g green beans, sliced
3 big spring onions, or 1 red or yellow onion, roughly chopped
1 tin tuna, in water or oil (80g-160g) *

DRESSING:
1 - 3 tbsp olive oil *
2 tbsp vinegar
1 tsp mustard
1 tsp-tbsp soy sauce *
Pepper
2 tbsp water *

METHOD:

1. Heat the oil in a frying pan and add the drained chickpeas and the herbes d'Provence. Brown them, stirring occasionally to prevent burning. Add the garlic just for a minute and switch off.
2. Boil the sliced green beans in salted water till done. Drain.
3. DRESSING: Mix all the ingredients together well.
4. Mix all together while still warm. NOTE: You can also let it all go cold and then mix it, no problem, but we like the salad lukewarm.

And that's it! Enjoy!

Share this

yum, yum


Der sieht ja richtig lecker aus. Ich könnte glatt in das Bild reinbeißen. LOL
Den werden wir demnächst auch probieren.

Liebe Grüße
Lena und Dieter

It is really yummy!


And it's low fat! What more can one want?!
Luv Cxxx

Yum!


Yum!

Post new comment
The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd> <img> <div>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • You may use [inline:xx] tags to display uploaded files or images inline.

More information about formatting options