Easy Cheezy Chickpea Salad (& How I Am Stocking My Pantry)

When I chat with friends from home, I field many similar questions. Have you finished unpacking? YES!!!! How am I finding the heat and humidity? Not that bad… Is Houston friendly for cyclists?  My route to work is actually pretty devoid of cars, so I can’t complain. How is the food… and the veggie selection?  One of my friend was interested in how I triaged the stocking of my fridge and pantry. What did I buy first? What were my perishable and non-perishable necessities?

Since we were without a kitchen for almost a week when we arrived, I continued with my travel-friendly eats: overnight oats with chia seeds and protein powder for breakfast, hummus with carrots and crackers for lunch and snack, and easy eats for dinner once I made my first grocery run. We hit up the closest grocers (Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods and Fiesta Mart) to scope out our new neighbourhood and begin our pantry. See below for what I commonly keep in my kitchen.

After the Zesty Lemon Cilantro Chickpea Salad, this was the next salad I made. This salad is almost too simple. Only four ingredients, or five if you include salt or pepper. Chickpeas, lemon juice, nutritional yeast and leafy greens. Definitely more than the sum of its parts. The lemon juice is tart and the nutritional yeast tames it into a creamy dressing. Marinade the chickpeas and use the extra sauce to toss with your favourite leafy greens. This is also a good travel-friendly meal if you stash nutritional yeast in your bag, of course, along with a knife to cut the lemon. Don’t we all travel this way? HAHA! 🙂

Without further ado, this is my culled pantry list:

Perishables

Produce: apples, bananas (for Rob), carrots, lemons/limes, green onion, onions, garlic, ginger (cilantro is a common staple, depending on my menu)
Bonus: tofu and tempeh.
Leafy greens if salads are on the menu

Non-perishables

Beans:
canned beans (chickpeas, black beans, kidney beans)
dried beans (chickpeas, black beans, lentils (red, green))

Grains:
Oats (rolled oats and steel cut oats)
Quinoa
Brown short-grain rice

Flours:
Chickpea flour (for Rob to make chilla)
Masarepa (for Rob to make arepas)

Seeds:
Chia seeds
Flax seeds
Sesame seeds
Tahini

Vinegars:
Balsamic vinegar
Apple cider vinegar
Rice vinegar

Oils:
Extra-virgin olive oil, for salads
Coconut oil, for cooking
Toasted sesame oil

Nuts:
Almonds
Raw cashews
Nut butter (peanut butter is Rob’s favourite)

Canned/other foods:
Salt
Bragg’s liquid aminos or low-sodium tamari
Nutritional yeast
Mustard (preferably Dijon)
Sweet chili sauce (for Rob)
Sriracha (for Rob)
Tamarind concentrate
Dried fruit (dates, raisins, coconut, cranberries)
Sun-dried tomatoes
Canned tomatoes (I usually only get whole tomatoes and less commonly crushed)
Tomato paste
Miso
Nondairy milk
Coconut milk
Agave or maple syrup
Tea/tisanes (coffee for Rob)
Baking soda (also for cleaning)
Protein powder

Herbs and spices (at least):

Cumin
Coriander
Cinnamon (sticks and ground)
Cardamom pods (green)
Aleppo chili flakes
Turmeric
Smoked paprika
Rosemary
Thyme (I don’t use this that often)
Basil (I don’t use this that often)
Oregano
Bay leaves
+ all the ingredients for my veg stock powder (parsley, dill, garlic granules, onion granules, etc)

I have had a much larger pantry in the past but I am trying to keep things limited to what I will consume in a year. What are things that I have missed that you cannot live without?

This is my submission to Deb for this week’s Souper Sundays.

Easy Cheezy Chickpea Salad
Adapted from Cat’s Kitchen

1.5 cups cooked chickpeas, rinsed and drained if canned
1 tbsp nutritional yeast
juice from 1 lemon (1/4 cup)
olive oil, to taste (I omitted)
salt and pepper, to taste (I used a sprinkle of lemon pepper seasoning)
5-6 cups leafy greens

1. In a medium bowl, combine chickpeas, nutritional ywast, lemon juice and lemon pepper. Stir until well combined. Plate on top of your favourite leafy greens. Drizzle any remaining juice overtop greens.

Serves 2-3.