Welcome to another week of quarantining and working from home!  I’m excited to share this week’s work from home lunch creation, which I’ve really been enjoying.  This meal is basically a deconstructed hummus served on top of a bed of juicy, perfectly ripe summer tomatoes.  This recipe really utilizes the produce that I currently have on hand, along with pantry staples such as canned chickpeas and tahini.

This recipe uses the tahini as the only dressing, which means no fussing around with making vinaigrettes this week!  This does involve making crispy chickpeas, which offers my much-needed break away from the computer that I need in my work from home meals.  I have been eating this with a full ½ can of chickpeas on top of one (or half of a large heirloom) tomato, so this meal is protein packed, and loaded with warm, crispy flavor from the chickpeas and sweet/sour juiciness from the tomatoes.  Any tomatoes will work with this too: a nice handful of any cherry tomatoes, a couple of smaller Roma/plum sized tomatoes, or 1 or a half of larger beefsteak or heirloom tomatoes will all work.  The ratio I usually go with is about ½ tomato, ½ chickpeas, but feel free to adjust this based on your preferences!

Recipe down below, photo up top!  This recipe is enough to make 2 good servings of this salad.

Tomatoes with Tahini and Crispy Chickpeas

Ingredients:

• 1 large beefsteak or heirloom tomato
• 1 can of chickpeas, drained thoroughly
• 2 tsp tahini
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• Salt to taste

Method:

1. Slice the tomato into bite-sized chunks, and add to a large bowl.
2. Drizzle tahini over the tomatoes, making sure to dab a little bit on each tomato piece, if possible.
3. Sprinkle the tomatoes with some salt, and set aside while making the crispy chickpeas.
4. For the crispy chickpeas, drain a can of chickpeas thoroughly, and use a paper towel to pat them as dry as possible.  Heat up a large skillet or saute pan and add the oil.  Swirl to coat the oil on the bottom of the pan, then add the chickpeas.  Toss to combine and allow to brown, tossing occasionally, for about 10 minutes.  When the chickpeas have turned golden brown and slightly crispy on the outside, remove the pan from the heat and allow chickpeas to cool down slightly, about 5 minutes.
5. Add the warm chickpeas on top of the tomatoes.  Do not mix to allow the chickpeas to stay as crispy as possible during consumption (the juices from the tomatoes will make them soggy very quickly).
6. Enjoy!