Veggin’

This is fully loaded vinaigrette recipe is next up in this Vegetarian Tour de France.  This recipe comes from what I find is in a cookbook amusingly called “Jean Hewitt’s International Meatless Cookbook: Over 300 Delicious Recipes, Including Many for Fish and Chicken.” Uh, yeah…anyways…

I substituted the red wine vinegar with champagne vinegar and it came out so good that we couldn’t wait the two hours to let the flavors soak in. In fact, it sat for about 15 minutes and was nearly eaten in one sitting. (I can’t really report on how the fully marinated leftovers tasted the next day as they were eaten by another party in this house…)

Just a heads up, the recipe calls for one large red onion. I only used a half of a red onion and found that there were plenty of onions in the salad. A whole onion may overwhelm the dish – but I leave it to your tastes as to how you want to prepare it. That said, you can probably get away with throwing in some more cheese and chickpeas into the mix. I had a lot of the dressing leftover because I didn’t want to over saturate the salad.

Chick-Peas Vinaigrette
Jean Hewitt’s International Meatless Cookbook

2 cans (15.5 ounces) chick-peas, drained and rinsed
1 large red onion, thinly sliced and separated into rings
1 cup tiny cubes Gruyere or Swiss
2/3 cup olive or vegetable oil
1/4 cup red wine vinegar (I used champagne vinaigrette instead.)
1 clove garlic, crushed
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh chives, or 4 tablespoons freeze-dried
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1 hard-cooked egg
2 tablespoons drained capers

Place the chick-peas, onion rings, and cheese in a medium-sized bowl.

In a screw-cap jar combine te oil, vinegar, garlic, salt, pepper, chives, parsley, chopped white of the egg, and the capers.

Shake to mix.

Pour enough of the dressing over the salad to coat when tossed. Cover and chill several hours. Serve in a lettuce-lined bowl with finely sieved egg yolk as a garnish.