Back in early November, I wrote about a new delicacy I enjoyed on a meditation retreat last summer: preserved lemon. At the time I promised I’d share a recipe that uses preserved lemon. Today’s the day. In fact, the plate in the photo shows two ways to use preserved lemon. I’ve included both recipes in this post.
The chickpea salad comes from Spirit Rock Meditation Center. While I don’t know how much of each ingredient they used to make the salad I enjoyed there, I made up my own version using just their ingredient list. Feel free to play with the amounts.
For example, I used the dressing (vinegar and oil) sparingly. You might want to add more. But even if you absolutely LOVE kalamata olives, I wouldn’t add a lot more than what’s listed below because their flavor is so strong it could overpower the other flavors. One thing I enjoy about this salad is the panoply of different textures and surprising flavor accents. It’s important that one flavor doesn’t dominate the rest.
I’ve also included a very simple recipe for green, purple or wax beans with preserved lemon. This preparation would also work for other veggies, such as cauliflower, broccoli and Brussels sprouts.
Chickpea Salad
- 1-1/2 cups cooked chickpeas, or one 15-ounce can, rinsed and drained
- 1/2 red onion, finely chopped
- 1-2 tablespoons chopped herbs: I used fresh basil, but tarragon and marjoram would also be good
- 2 tablespoons preserved lemon, skins only, chopped in 1/8-inch dice
- 1 tablespoon capers, rinsed and drained
- 1/4-1/3 cup kalamata olives, roughly chopped
- 1/2 red pepper, diced
- 1 stalk celery, diced
- 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
- 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- salt
- freshly ground black pepper
Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and enjoy!
Green Beans with Preserved Lemon
- 2 cups green, purple or wax beans, stem ends removed
- 1 tablespoon butter or olive oil
- chopped fresh herbs (I used basil, but tarragon would be really good)
- 1 tablespoon preserved lemon, in 1/8-inch dice
Plunge the beans into boiling water and blanch for 3-5 minutes.
Combine the beans with the rest of the ingredients in a medium mixing bowl. Serve warm.