Description

This fava bean chickpea salad is a bit of a rip-off of one we had for dinner one night as part of a mezze feast at a Lebanese restaurant in Dubai last month. It’s fast, fresh, and flavoursome.

Ingredients

Scale

1/2 c wholegrain freekeh
1 c fava beans (broad beans), shelled and peeled
2 tomatoes
1 Lebanese cucumber
1/2 red onion
400g can of chickpeas, drained
a handful of finely chopped continental parsley
5 large mint leaves, finely chopped
1 lemon
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
sea salt flakes and freshly ground pepper
250g halloumi

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Instructions

Cook the freekeh to packet instructions. Once cooked (about 35 minutes) make sure all the water is absorbed and leave to cool.
Dice the tomatoes, cucumber, and red onion. Pop them into a large salad bowl.
Add the fava beans, chickpeas, and chopped herbs.
Once the freekeh has cooled, add it to the chopped salad.
Heat up a frypan on medium heat. Cut the lemon in half and put both lemon halves (cut side down) in the frying pan to grill for 5 minutes. Remove the lemon from the pan. Let the pan get up to medium heat again and pop in the halloumi. Grill both sides for a few minutes each until sealed and golden. While the halloumi is cooking…
Squeeze one lemon half and the extra virgin olive oil over the salad. Season with sea salt flakes and freshly ground pepper.
Slice the halloumi and serve on top of the salad.
Add the second grilled lemon to the side of the salad to squeeze over the halloumi.

Notes

I used frozen fava beans for this recipe. Just leave them to defrost at room temperature before using. Fresh broad beans are in season between Spring and early Summer. To use fresh beans, first shell the pods. You then need to blanch the beans in salted, boiling water for one minute. Cool the beans by plunging them into icy water for a few minutes. Drain the beans. Then remove each bean from their individual shells. They are now ready to eat!