North African style Chickpea and tomato salad

Tahini is a sort of paste that you make with sesame seed and oil bended in to a sort of paste. And in this dressing it gives this salad a real deep flavour.

You will need.

2-3 garlic cloves
Pinch sea salt
2 tbsp tahini
1 lemon, juice only
1 tbsp olive oil
1 x 400g/14oz can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1 small white onion
500g/1lb 3oz ripe tomatoes
Freshly ground black pepper
Handful of fresh parsley
Handful of fresh coriander
Cayenne pepper, to taste

Start by taking your garlic, salt, lemon juice and olive oil and blend this together. Then take the tahini and give it a stir then add that to the dressing and stir it all together. If you think it is a little on the thick side add some more lemon juice and oil until you get the consistency that you are looking for. Or you could add a little water as well that work just as well if you are worried about the calories of all that oil.

Now for the salad take you onion and dice this as fine as you can and put them in a bowl. Then dice the tomatoes in to the bowl with the onions. You want all the juices of the tomatoes in the bowl and not on a chopping board.  Now add your chip peas and a load of roughly chopped parsley and coriander. Then season with freshly ground black pepper and a little cayenne pepper.

Stir all the salad thing together cover and put in the fridge. I do not know hay but it always tastes nicer after you have chilled it them brought it out and let it warm up once more to room temperature, or is that just me.

Finally finish with the dressing and then all we need is the sun to come out and get some lamb kebabs on the barbeque.