Today is a really hot day, and it’s suppose to go up to 109ºF!! After moving up to the hot northern part in california, my cooking style has definitely explored into chilled and cooling foods to enjoy in a 90+ Fahrenheit degree weather. This past week has been a bit busy with work and I didn’t have time to prune off the flowers on my basil plants, so I decided to use them in a chickpea/garbanzo salad with a basil and cilantro vinaigrette. The flowers aren’t a must in this recipe, but they do create a feeling of delicacy and romance to the plate plus it adds a beautiful touch to a regular plain chickpea salad.

2 large tomatoes, chopped
1/2 red onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
1 cucumber, quartered
2 cups chickpeas, aka garbanzo), cooked and chilled
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
2 tsp grey poupon or dijon mustard
1/4 tsp paprika
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
1/4 cup basil, chopped
2 tbsp honey
a handful of fresh basil flowers, cut into 1 inch pieces
optional: arugula; chopped

1. In a large bowl combine tomatoes, onion, garlic, cucumber, and chickpeas. Set to cool in the refrigerator.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk rice wine vinegar, grey poupon, paprika, cilantro, basil, honey, and basil flowers.
3. Add the dressing to the salad bowl, and stir to combine all the ingredients so they can soak up all the flavors.
4. Let the chickpea salad sit for at least 10 minutes in the refrigerator. And you can serve it by itself or on top of a bed of chilled rice (I picked out some arugula from my garden and mixed it in the rice). Just go crazy with any herbs and play around with what you got. Bon Apetit!

I spy a bee in the basil flowers!

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