Roasted Chilli Chickpea Nicioise

Roasted Chilli Chickpea Nicioise

I remember long suburban summers back in the depths of my childhood, jumping through sprinklers, making dens in the long yellowing grass in the park, school holidays that felt like they lasted forever until they didn’t and of course the summer food… Mr Whippy from the ice cream van, frozen orange squash lollies and on occasion mum would go all fancy and break out the exotic salad nicoise… a memory of gastronomy from one of many driving holidays over the channel to France.

With summer in full swing here in the UK, this roasted chilli chickpea nicoise does its best to take me right back to those sun-drenched days and it hits the spot perfectly.

Recipe

200g Jersey Royal new potatoes – cut into chunks
1 tablespoon garlic infused olive oil (I used Krude Oil)
Salt and pepper
150g green beans
1 tablespoon lemon infused olive oil
The finely grated zest of half a lemon
Salt and pepper
1 x 570g jar chickpeas (I used Bold Bean)
1 tablespoon chilli infused olive oil
Salt and pepper
5 large eggs
Ice and Cold water
1 bag mixed salad (I used watercress)
A handful of vine plum tomatoes – chopped
A handful of red onion slices – vry thin
2 tablespoons olives
Salt and pepper
The juice of 1 lemon
More olive oil fro drizzling
Chives – finely chopped

Method

You will need a large bowl of cold water and ice for the eggs.

Pre-heat the oven to 180C and tip the drained chickpeas onto a baking tray. Drizzle with chilli oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast for 30 mins.

Whilst the chickpeas are roasting, boil the green beans for 3 minutes, drain well and drizzle with lemon oil and season with lemon zest and salt and pepper, mix well. Set aside.

Boil the potatoes until tender (roughly 9 minutes) and then drain well. Drizzle with garlic oil and season with salt and pepper. Set aside

Carefully drop the eggs into boiling water and boil for 6 minutes and 30 seconds precisely, then gently spoon them out of the boiling water and into the iced water. Allow them to cool for 10 minutes and then peel and slice in half.

Build the salad with the leaves at the bottom followed by the green beans, potatoes, tomatoes, olives and red onions. Then scatter over the chickpeas and finally lay the cut eggs onto the salad.

Serve immediately.