I came back from a week long business trip and found that we had lots of cucumbers and tomatoes plus we had had a farm bag delivered.   I spent the weekend creating or finding recipes that we could use to enjoy all the produce.  Here is one.

I’m not happy with the title but at least it’s not “Cucumber-Tomato-Red Onion-Chickpea Salad.”

Summer Salad

By Debra

Perfect to use up the garden (or Farmers Market) produce.

Ingredients

• 1 large cucumber, sliced thin
• 1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1/2 red onion, sliced thin
• 1 (15 oz.) can chickpeas, drained
• 2 T. fresh basil
• 2 T. olive oil
• 1 T. red wine vinegar
• 1 large garlic clove, minced
• salt and pepper

Instructions

1. Add all the veggies, chickpeas, basil to a large bowl and toss.
2. In a smaller bowl, whisk together the oil, vinegar, garlic, and salt and pepper.
3. Pour over salad and toss. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Yield: 8

Prep Time: 15 mins.

Total time: 15 mins.

I threw the chickpeas in for some protein as I served this for lunch on a Sunday.  It would be just as good without (or with white beans).  If you have green beans to use, blanch them and throw them in.  Some sweet pepper would have been nice too.

Besides the cukes and tomatoes, I also had a bunch of shishito peppers from the farm bag that needed used immediately.  Now, I love me some blistered shishitos, but I just wasn’t in the mood.  There must be some other ways to use these peppers.   Yes?

A quick search revealed Roasted Shishito Pepper Sauce (a recipe from Trader Joe’s).   The recipe hednote says that the sauce is delicious on fish tacos and BLTs.  We tried it out on top of some grilled burgers.  YUM!   I also think it would be good tossed with some pasta.   As always, there’s the Russian Roulette game with shishito peppers.  Our sauce definitely had a bite.

I’m not reprinting the recipe here but it’s basically about 2-3 cups of blistered peppers, 2 T. lime juice, 2 T. yogurt, garlic, and salt and pepper.

I’m linking up with Souper Sundays!