This Cucumber Avocado Salad has the most delicious spicy crispy chickpeas in them! A nutritionally balanced salad to take to work for lunch or enjoy for dinner (preferably outside and with friends)
I simply cannot get enough of creating recipes with this amazing fruit. Today I thought it’d be great to pair Cucumber and Avocado and see what goes well with that. After trying cajun seasoning for the first time I dreamed about coating some chickpeas in similar spices and roast them to make them spicy. You cannot imagine how amazing this tastes in a salad. It’s like adding spicy chips to your salad but without making it unhealthy.
How to Make Spicy Crispy Chickpeas for Cucumber Avocado Salad
You need either homecooked or canned chickpeas. Drain them, rinse them, drain them well well well and then lay them out on paper towel and dab with another piece of paper towel to make them super dry.
The wetter the chickpeas, the softer they will be when you roast them. The dryer, the crispier.
Add your favorite spices to a bowl. To keep it super easy you could buy ready made Cajun Seasoning and just add a good amount to the bowl. If you’re more like me and already have all the spices of the world in your cupboard you might as well make your own mix.
Either way, add a bit of oil to the spices until you reach a creamy sticky consistency that will adhere to your chickpeas. Add those in and toss well until they are all coated.
Roast in the oven until crispy and tadaaaaa. You can even eat those as a snack. Trust me though, they are best used for your Cucumber Avocado Salad. The crunchy cucumber and creamy avocado are simply amazing with this!
How long can I store Cucumber and Avocado Salad
We all know avocado turns brown faster than any other fruit. Yes, even faster than Banana 🙁
However, there are a couple of tricks to keep it fresh longer.
- Avocado browns because of air (oxygen). So the trick is to keep air away as good as possible. Once you cut it open and the skin doesn’t protect it anymore, store it in an airtight container. And with air-tight I mean REALLY air tight. Not those storage containers with loose lids. Rather the ones that have the rubber thingy around the edge of the lid to seal well.
- Another way to keep it from browning is toss it in some sort of acid. Be it lemon or vinegar, as soon as possible.
Still, you’ll have to eat the salad within 12 hours (better 6). So it’s best prepared in the morning to take to work the same day or max the night before.
You can also always mix together all ingredients and take a small avocado uncut to work and only cut open minutes before eating. The absolute best storage container for an avocado is and will always be it’s own skin.
INGREDIENTS
- ▢2 tsp smoked paprika
- ▢1/2 tsp thyme
- ▢1/2 tsp oregano
- ▢1/2 tsp dried onion
- ▢1/2 tsp garlic salt
- ▢1/2 tsp chili flakes
- ▢pepper – optional
- ▢2 dollops avocado oil
- ▢1 cup cooked chickpeas
- ▢1 English cucumber
- ▢1 yellow bell pepper
- ▢1/4 cup chopped cilantro
- ▢1 avocado
- ▢1 Tbsp olive oil
- ▢sea salt
- ▢pepper
- ▢lime juice
Cook Mode
Prevent your screen from going dark
INSTRUCTIONS
- Preheat oven to 400F.
- Add all spices to a bowl and whisk, then add avocado oil and mix well until creamy.
- Add cooked chickpeas to spice mix and coat well.
- The coated chickpeas go into the preheated oven on a baking sheet for 20 minutes.
- Wash and dice cucumber, bell pepper, cilantro. Deseed, peel and dice avocado and add all to a large mixing bowl.
- Once chickpeas have cooled down you can add to salad and season with olive oil, sea salt, pepper and lime juice to taste.
