Spring Garbanzo Salad

Salad and Pita | Photo by HealthyandLazy

I’d call this a spring salad if I lived somewhere with a spring.

I’m in Florida, and we’ve only got two seasons – summer and Christmas.  “Spring” is just the summer, but with pollen.

And don’t get me started on the pollen.  It’s in my car, my sinus and my dreams.

Whatever, though, I still gotta eat (and cook).  As my apartment heats up, the appeal of cold food goes up exponentially.  But it can be hard to whip up a cold meal that is still a fulfilling dinner.

Enter ‘Spring Garbanzo Salad’ – a good mix of just-a-few-ingredients and ready-to-eat-in-5-minutes.  And it tastes good, too.

Garbanzo beans are a staple in my cupboard.  They’re versatile and they’re shaped like asteroids – what’s not to like?  Add in some feta, mint and fresh tomatoes, top with a white wine vinegarette and BOOM – dinna.

Here’s what you need:

• 2 cans garbanzo beans
• 3 plum tomatoes or, preferably, 6 Roma tomatoes
• 4 oz crumbled feta
• 1/4 cup fresh mint
• 1/3 cup white wine vinegar
• 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1/3 teaspoon black pepper

Here’s what to do:

Step 1) Drain and rinse the beans.  In a bowl, combine the beans with chunked tomatoes, crumbled feta and mint.

Step 2) In some sort of closeable container (tupperware would work fine in the absence of anything fancier), mix white wine vinegar, evoo, sugar and black pepper.  Shake it good and pour over the salad.

Not as good as cake, but still good | Photo by HealthyandLazy

See, this recipe is a quickie.  With all the time you didn’t spend making dinner, go make this for dessert/desert.

My Big Fat Greek Burgers

Greek and Spinach and Feta Burger | Photo by HealthyandLazy

This recipe comes to me from Better Homes and Gardens, via my mom.  It’s a lot like my black bean burgers in preparation, but totally different in flavor.  There’s not a whole lot to say about it – put all the goods in a bowl and mix it up, squish them into pattie shape, toss ’em into a pan.  Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

The only difficulty I had was that the burgers tended to crumble a bit when I flipped them.  The spinach/stuffing/feta mixture didn’t hold together as well as black bean burgers – there’s just no mushy ingredient to hold it all together.  I toyed with the original recipe a little bit.  Adding a little more olive oil and stuffing mix seemed to improve the consistency and made it a little easier to work with (those changes are reflected in the recipe below).