Mum's the Word

Mum's the word at I Heart Cooking Clubs this week...cooking for Mom.

When I think of the word Mum (or Mom), I also think of the word "frugal."

It's a compliment.
Really, it is.

When I was growing up, my mom was famous for making frugal cooking substitutions based on what she had in the freezer, fridge, pantry, or garden.  Back in January I set out on a project to do just that.

In honor of Mom's frugality and my own, I chose Jamie Oliver's Summer Chickpea Salad for this week's IHCC link-up.

We had feta cheese and red onion leftover from some Greek meatballs. And I often seem to have chickpeas (or chicken pebbles as The Boy calls them) in the pantry. The mint and basil came from my garden. Unfortunately I had to buy cherry tomatoes because mine aren't quite ripe yet.

We all thought this was a nice, light, seasonal salad...one we'd make again.  I served it with some grilled green onion venison sausages from the freezer (and from my dad).  Went well together.

I ended up using the recipe as a suggestion for ingredients--I found the amounts to be way off.  At least for our tastes.  An entire raw red onion...no thanks.  I used about 1/4 of a small one.  I also felt that an entire handful each of basil and mint as well as 7 oz of feta would have been overwhelming.

Swing on by IHCC for more Mum's the Word recipes.

I'm also submitting this to Souper (Soup, Salad & Sammie) Sundays @ Kahakai Kitchen

And adding this to Seaside Simplicity's June Salad Roundup

Printable recipe
Summer Chickpea Salad
from JamieOliver.com

1 small red onion, peeled (used about 1/4 of a small onion)
1–2 fresh red chillies, deseeded (used 1 small serrano)
2 handfuls of ripe red or yellow tomatoes
2 lemons
extra virgin olive oil
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 14oz jar or can of chickpeas, drained, or around 4 large handfuls of soaked and cooked chickpeas
a handful of fresh mint, chopped (used about 2 Tbsp chopped)
a handful of fresh green or purple basil, finely ripped (used about 2 Tbsp chopped)
7oz feta cheese (used maybe 1/4 cup)

First of all, finely slice your red onion. Once that’s done, finely slice your chillies then roughly chop your tomatoes, mixing them in with the onion and chillies. Scrape all of this, and the juice, into a bowl and dress with the juice of 1¹⁄₂ lemons and about 3 times as much good extra virgin olive oil. Season to taste. Heat the chickpeas in a pan, then add 90 per cent of them to the bowl. Mush up the remaining chickpeas and add these as well – they will give a nice creamy consistency. Allow to marinate for a little while and serve at room temperature.

Just as you’re ready to serve, give the salad a final dress with the fresh mint and basil. Taste one last time for seasoning – you may want to add the juice from your remaining lemon half at this point. Place on a nice serving dish and crumble over the feta cheese.