Roasted Red Pepper and Crispy Chickpea Salad

This was the first entrée salad from Home Chef that we tried and we enjoyed it. Once again, it was a 5-minute, no cook meal.

I’ve been spending an hour or two most Sunday afternoons for the past two years chopping veggies. I bag them for lunches, mix them to pour over spinach for quick salads, and package them up to simply bring to the table at mealtime for an instant side dish. I made a decision to eat fewer convenience foods and do more of my own food prep so I would have control and knowledge of what I am eating two years ago during my first trip to the Hermitage. This decision didn’t have an impact on my weight, but it has definitely had a positive influence on the variety and quantity of veggies in the house!

We had the option of adding protein to the Home Chef salad and I decided to do that part on my own. Dragon was over earlier in the week and we grilled up three pounds of salmon (9 fillets), knowing I could set aside plenty for the salads. I got out garlic! and olive oil! and an entire jar of a new Penzey’s flavor sensation mix!

Note to self, note to world: Seasoned salt is salt.

So, Hubby said, ever polite, that he’d take a pass on any further servings of the salmon and I scraped all the seasoning I could off the salmon and steadily made my way through it for lunches. We had the salad without a protein.

And here’s what I’m figuring out about Home Chef. They use a very effective strategy that I wish I’d figured out on my own years ago: TEXTURE. The salad had both crispy, roasted chickpeas and fried onions.

I realized young to add a strong cheese to salads. I routinely keep bleu, goat, and feta cheese crumbles in the cheese drawer. When I get WILD and CRAZY I add craisins. But not crunchies. And while we both enjoy a variety of dressings, we’ve been rather stuck in a rut for the last couple of years (oil and vinegar for Hubby, Caesar for me).

For a family that eats a lot of raw veggies anyway, a salad with new ideas was a lovely departure from the same-old, same-old. It had strong flavors, an interesting and delicious combination of textures, and a sweet Vidalia dressing. We’ll be trying more of Home Chef’s entrée salads.