Chickpea Salad Avocado Boats with Pita Bread and Tzatziki

Avocado boats, where have you been all my life?

From now on, I am making avocado boats out of any and everything!

This version with chickpea salad was just delightful!

There are a LOT of elements to this meal. Let’s break them down for you.

Avocado Boats

Make sure to use some ripe, but not so ripe avos. Slice your avocado in half, remove the seed. Scoop out about 1 tablespoon of filling out, so you have room to pile the chickpea salad over the avocado, and go to town!

Chickpea Salad

This salad will be perfect for your meal prep! You can easily make a lot of it, and it can last you a few days, not to mention, you won’t be bored at all from eating it. You’ll actually be ready to make some more in no time. That’s cause it’s the bomb! 

I feel like this chickpea salad deserved its own entire post!

My mom used to make this when I was a child.

I grew up a vegetarian. I was one for 16 years. So, my poor mother had to scramble to find meals that would be healthy, filling, and, at the same time, support the development of a child who would grow up to be 5’11” someday. (yes, I’m a giant)

And this salad was simply perfect for that!

Al dente cooked chickpeas, mixed with chopped cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, parsley and chives! Seasoned with EVOO, apple cider vinegar and salt! Badabing! Prep time is like 20 min, soaking the garbanzo beans is what will take you the longest, unless you use canned.

Pita Bread

This recipe for Pita Bread is quick and easy! And nothing will ever beat homemade Pita Bread (or any kind of bread, for that matter). Just make it. It’s therapeutical! In any case, feel free to use store bought! At the end of the day, whatever suits you better is what will be therapeutical!

And finally…

Tzatziki

Tzatziki is my favorite. I enjoy making it, eating it, smelling it, starring at it, talking about it.

It’s a fairly simple sauce to make.

You simply mix cucumbers, yogurt, dill, garlic, lemon juice, salt and pepper.

That’s it.

A couple steps could really improve the quality of your tzatziki sauce. And they are: straining the yogurt, and draining the cucumbers!

Even if your yogurt doesn’t seem runny and full of water, do strain it. Once you place it over a strainer lined with a doubled cheesecloth, you will see what I’m talking about. You’ll be like: where did this water all come from?

And for the cucumbers, simply mix the diced cucumbers with some salt and let it sit over a strainer for a little while to let the water drain.

Read it in details below in the recipe.

As you know, I do make lots and lots of sweets and baked goods. But I always try to balance out my meals, so you know, I’m not 10 hundred pounds…

And this is a typical meal at my house. I will strive to post more of my meals and not only my desserts, but truth be told, I have a hard time photographing food that isn’t cake, pie and cookies haha. That’s cause they are naturally beautiful. But now, cmon, look at this avocado boat! Is there anything more beautiful than this?

Chickpea Salad Avocado Boats with Pita Bread and Tzatziki

This meal is addicting! The texture of the chickpeas, with the creamy avocado, tangy tzatziki and the delicious pita bread, will win you over! I've served this to my guests and just couldn't hear the end of it. Everyone was delighted!

5 from 10 votes

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Prep Time 2 hours hrs 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 2 hours hrs

Total Time 4 hours hrs 10 minutes mins

Course Salad

Cuisine Mediterranean

Servings 6 people

Calories 280 kcal

Ingredients

  

Pita Bread

• 1 cup warm water 90F
• 1 teaspoon honey
• 2 teaspoons instant yeast
• 4 tablespoons whole wheat flour about 40 g
• 2 1/3 cups all purpose flour 300g
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2 tablespoons olive oil

Chickpea Salad

• 3 cups dried garbanzo beans
• 1 cucumber peeled, seeded and chopped
• 1 pint cherry tomatoes quartered
• 1/4 cup parsley chopped finely
• 3 tablespoons chives chopped finely
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt or more to taste
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil or more to taste
• 4 tablespoons apple cider vinegar or more to taste
• Optional: you can add some chopped mint basil, dried oregano, or any herbs you’re fond of.

Tzatziki sauce

• 2 cups greek yogurt
• 1 English cucumber
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt for cucumbers
• 1 garlic clove crushed
• 1 lemon juiced (about 2-3 tablespoons)
• 3 tablespoons chopped dill and mint you can do a combination of both or just one of them
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper or black, but I do prefer white
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt or more to taste

Instructions

 

Pita Bread

• Mix all ingredients together in the bowl of a stand mixer, if using one. If you are kneading by hand, just use any bowl.
• Once ingredients have incorporated, knead them for about 2 minutes with the dough hook on medium-low speed. Or about 4 minutes by hand.
• Cover dough with a towel and let it rest for 10 minutes.
• Once the 10 minutes have passed, knead dough for another 3 minutes with the dough hook, or about 5 by hand.
• Transfer dough to oiled bowl. Cover with a towel or plastic and let it rise at room temperature for about 1 hour, until doubled in size.
• Pre-heat oven to 475F. Place a pizza stone, or a cast iron pan (or any other oven proof pans) in the bottom of your oven.
• Divide dough into 10 equal pieces. Shape pieces into balls. Flatten each ball, by pressing down on them, slightly, with the palm of your hand.
• Using a rolling pin, roll each ball out into a flat 8 inch circle.
• One by one, place dough on top of hot pizza stone or pan. Close oven door. Let it bake for about 2 minutes. Using tongs, flip bread over. Close oven door. Let it cook for another 2 minutes. It should puff up beautifully.
• Remove dough from the oven and place in a brown bag or a closed container, so it doesn’t get tough as it cools down.
• Repeat with remaining dough pieces.

Chickpea Salad

• If you aren’t using canned garbanzo beans, first, start by soaking your beans for 12 hours or overnight.
• Drain it and rinse it after soaking. Place it in a pressure cooker and cover with 6 cups of water, add a bay leaf for flavor, if you’d like.
• Bring it to a boil, place lid on pan. Cook on medium high for about 12 minutes.
• Let pressure of the pan release naturally. Drain beans. You may rinse them with cold water to bring their temperature down.
• Mix them in a bowl with all the other ingredients. Refrigerate until ready to serve. It will see in your fridge for about 4 days.

Tzatziki sauce

• Start by peeling your cucumber. Dice it really finely and combine it with 1 teaspoons of kosher salt. Place it in a strainer and let it drain for about 1 hour. Occasionally, press it down on the cucumbers, to help drain the water out. Alternatively, you can place a plate directly on top of the cucumbers and then place a heavy bowl or something heavy on top of it, to help draw the water out.
• Place yogurt in a strainer lined with two layers of cheese cloth. Let it drain, over a bowl, in the fridge, for about 2 hours. I like to often squeeze the cheesecloth to help draw a lot of the liquid out.
• Those two tricks are the secret to obtaining a very thick and smooth tzatziki. Sometimes your tzatziki will be firm on day one, bu on the very next day, it will be all runny and full of liquid, because you have skipped these two important steps.
• After both cucumber and yogurt have drained, you may place all ingredients in a bowl and stir them together. Taste for seasoning. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before serving. Sauce will keep for a couple days in the fridge.

To serve

• Slice avocado in half. Scoop out about 1 tablespoon of the avocado flesh out. This way, yo have more room to pile high a bunch of the delicious chickpea salad. Scoop the flesh out and eat it, obviously. After all, what else would you do with a perfect tablespoon of delicious avocado?
• Spoon mountains of chickpea salad over avocado boats. Serve with tzatziki and pita bread on the side. You can come here and thank me later, for this will be one of the best meals you’ll have, ever!

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