Spinach & Arugula Salad with Indian- Spiced Chickpeas & Charred Red Onions

Phew... that's one long title of a recipe. A little bit TMI in IMHO. I hate acronyms. But sometimes you just have to use them and hope that most of the general population 'gets' it.

I first saw this recipe on Laura's blog: The Spiced Life. As her blog title indicates, she tends to pick delicious recipes that incorporate spice in some way or another. Alysha from The Savory Notebook also reviewed this recipe. You'll enjoy mouthwatering pictures on her blog. And the original recipe comes from Jack Bishop's A Year In a Vegetarian Kitchen.

Here's my take on Spinach and Arugula Salad with Indian-Spiced Chickpeas and Charred Red Onions. I'm a huge fan of cooked onions but the raw variety have much too much of that sharp onion flavor for me. And I don't enjoy the crunch. However, grill those puppies up and throw them on a hamburger, caramelize them and pair them with anything...

...or roast them up and add them to dishes... well, by golly, they jump into that category of foods that I tend to lust after. In this recipe, the onions are roasted. They get a just-slighty-caramelized /just-barely charred flavor that is tempting to nibble on and perfect to top the salad.
The chickpeas are are sauteed with bursting mustard seeds and cumin seeds. Just enough to give them the flavor needed to carry the salad.

I have to admit that I was really worried that we wouldn't enjoy this salad. Lemon for a dressing?? Just a squeeze of lemon??? No oil???? Just the juice????? It's ok... the lemon was perfect. It was just a simple flavor to contribute to the salad that didn't take away from the chickpea and roasted onion superstars. WE THOROUGHLY ENJOYED THIS SALAD! Really different. And really delicious.

This recipe can be found HERE.

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