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Turkish Cucumber and Crispy Chickpea Salad with Garlic Yogurt
Light, crunchy and refreshing my Turkish Cucumber and Crispy Chickpea Salad with Garlic Yogurt is the perfect accompaniment to some homemade flatbreads and barbecued lamb kebabs for dinner tonight. All the elements from the simple garlic yogurt to crunchy chickpeas and Turkish-inspired chopped cucumber salad are good by themselves, but together I think they’ll be enough to get you out of a salad rut: it got me out of mine!
Since we took up a special offer to get a Telegraph subscription for the year I’ve resolved to make the most of having weekly recipes from Diana Henry behind the paywall. She’s always been one of my favourite food writers, and we have a lot of favourite ingredients in common. A few weeks ago for dinner alongside some of my aforementioned homemade flatbreads I made her Turkish spiced chicken with garlic yogurt, cucumber and dill. The chicken was tasty, but what really blew me away was the simple chopped cucumber salad, and how good the yogurt also was piled into the flatbreads. I clearly had salad on the brain, so later in the week when I reached for the same ingredients instead of the chicken I built a plate with some crispy chickpeas I had leftover developing a recipe for a client. A couple of tweaks later, and this Turkish cucumber and garlic yogurt salad was born.
White Balsamic Vinegar
If you’ve cooked a lot of my recipes before you’ll have come across white balsamic vinegar, which is also labelled as white condiment or white balsamic condiment, sold in similar bottles to good balsamic; you can find it easily in most big supermarkets these days. It’s nothing like it’s thick, syrupy cousin, it’s simply a white vinegar which balances a lovely amount of sweetness with that vinegar tang. Buy a bottle for this recipe, and you’ll also be able to make my super-refreshing pineapple shrub, or our of our favourite summer recipes (adapted from another Diana Henry recipe, actually): Roast Chicken with Honey, Peaches and Thyme. Please don’t be tempted to substitute regular balsamic vinegar; they’re very different products and it will overwhelm the dish!
Frequently Asked Questions
You usually talk about using jarred chickpeas instead of tinned, but you’ve specified tinned chickpeas for this recipe. Why?
I LOVE jarred chickpeas (as well as other beans) for their rich, soft, creamy taste but as we’re looking to make these chickpeas lovely and crisp in the oven, we want to start with chickpeas that are slightly drier. Hence, tinned chickpeas.
Help, my salad tastes bitter. What did I do wrong??
So, this happened to me during one of my recipe tests, and the culprit was my terrible habit of still using little pieces of lemon wedge that have gone a little dry in the fridge. With age that had become bitter, and I know I’m not the only person who has this habit trying to cut down on food waste. Fresh is best with this recipe!
I can’t find any fresh dill, can I substitute any other herbs?
I really do love the dill in this one (otherwise I’d not have written the recipe this way!) but parsley, coriander and fresh mint would all make worthy substitutes.
This light, creamy and refreshing Turkish Cucumber and Crispy Chickpea Salad with Garlic Yogurt is perfect for dipping, scooping, or piling into flatbreads alongside grilled meat and vegetables.
Ingredients
Scale
For the Crispy Chickpeas
1 x 400g tin chickpeas
1/2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/8 tsp fine sea salt
For the Garlic Yogurt
250g thick full fat Greek yogurt
1 small garlic clove, minced
generous pinch sea salt
For the Turkish Cucumber Salad
150g cucumber
1 tbsp finely chopped dill
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp white balsamic vinegar
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
pinch sea salt
Instructions
To make the chickpeas, pre-heat the oven to 200C. Drain and rinse the chickpeas, and pat as dry and possible with a double sheet of kitchen paper. Line a rimmed baking tray with baking parchment, and toss the chickpeas with the olive oil and salt. Roast for 20 minutes, tossing halfway.
Stir together all the yoghurt ingredients, and set aside.
For the cucumber salad, leaving the skin on finely dice the cucumber and mix it wither the chopped dill, olive oil, white balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, and another pinch of sea salt.
To assemble, swirl the yogurt across the bottom of the serving dish. Pile on half the chickpeas, followed by the cucumber salad, then the rest of the chickpeas. Drizzle with a little extra olive oil, and serve immediately.
Notes
I’ve made this served two as the salad doesn’t really keep (the chickpeas will go soggy and the cucumber will turn the yogurt watery in the fridge) but it is easily scaled up to feed a crowd; just use a very large, or two baking trays to crisp the chickpeas!
I'm a food writer, professional recipe developer and cookbook author living in the English Countryside. I love creating easy, accessable recipes filled with vibrant world flavours that are manageable on busy weeknights. Simple and delicious dinners, from my kitchen to yours!
One Pan Pescatarian: 100 Delicious Dinners – Veggie, Vegan, Fish
My second cookbook contains 100 delicious dinner recipes, all of which are either vegetarian, vegan or which celebrate fish and seafood - all cooked in either one pot or one pan.*
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