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!
Course Salad
Cuisine Mediterranean
Prep Time 2 hourshours10 minutesminutes
Cook Time 2 hourshours
Total Time 4 hourshours10 minutesminutes
Servings 6people
Calories 280kcal
Ingredients
Pita Bread
1cupwarm water90F
1teaspoonhoney
2teaspoonsinstant yeast
4tablespoonswhole wheat flourabout 40 g
2 1/3cupsall purpose flour300g
1teaspoonkosher salt
2tablespoonsolive oil
Chickpea Salad
3cupsdried garbanzo beans
1cucumberpeeled, seeded and chopped
1pintcherry tomatoesquartered
1/4cupparsleychopped finely
3tablespoonschiveschopped finely
2teaspoonskosher saltor more to taste
1teaspoonfreshly ground black pepper
4tablespoonsextra virgin olive oilor more to taste
4tablespoonsapple cider vinegaror more to taste
Optional: you can add some chopped mintbasil, dried oregano, or any herbs you’re fond of.
Tzatziki sauce
2cupsgreek yogurt
1English cucumber
1teaspoonkosher saltfor cucumbers
1garlic clovecrushed
1lemonjuiced (about 2-3 tablespoons)
3tablespoonschopped dill and mintyou can do a combination of both or just one of them
1/2teaspoonfreshly ground white pepperor black, but I do prefer white
1/2teaspoonkosher saltor 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!