Roasted Chickpea and Mozzarella Pesto Salad
Ingredients
400g can chickpeas
Pinch of salt and pepper
½ tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp olive oil
150g plum tomatoes. halved
2 large tbsp pesto
1 ball mozzarella, roughly chopped
6 sun dried tomatoes, sliced
fresh basil
2 large handfuls fresh baby-leaf spinach
Grated Parmesan, to serve
Lemon wedge, to serve
Let's cook
Pre-heat the oven to 180°C. Drain the can of chick-peas into a sieve and rinse with cold, running water. Dry them as much as possible with kitchen roll by gently dabbing the peas. Turn the chick-peas out onto a baking tray lined with baking parchment so that they are spread out around the tray.
Sprinkle over a pinch of salt and pepper, and half a tsp of smoked paprika. Then drizzle over a tsp of olive oil. With clean hands, rub the oil and seasoning all over the chick-peas. Place the baking tray into the oven and roast for 45 minutes, shuffling the tray half-way through to ensure they are done all over.
Meanwhile, mix the chopped tomatoes, mozzarella and sun-dried tomatoes together in a mixing bowl with the pesto until coated. Arrange a bed of washed spinach on a plate. Once the chickpeas are done, spoon them in with the pesto mixture and incorporate them.
Spoon half of the chick-pea and mozzarella mix over the bed of spinach and keep the other half in the fridge for later or serve it up for a friend on another bed of spinach! Sprinkle over some grated Parmesan and serve with a lemon wedge. Enjoy!