Balela Chickpea Salad (TJ’s inspired)

Don’t you hate it when you find something you love and then realize you didn’t take a good look at the ingredients? Doh! That was me with Trader Joe’s Balela Salad. 

I grabbed it and fell in love. I then grabbed it a few more times before I realized I hadn’t looked closely at the label (if you’re not at the “reader” stage in life, you’ll know when you know - I kick myself every time I realize I’ve ventured to the store and my reading glasses have failed to come along for the journey). There are only so many times you can ask someone to read a label for you.

Well, I did finally read it, and to my dismay, canola oil is the third ingredient. Ugh. I had already planned to make my own version, so this gave me the kick in the pants I needed. 

I’m not a fan of vegetable oils, good quality olive oil being the exception. 

Canola oil, in particular, is on my no list. I know, I know, “it’s heart healthy.” But is it? 

Canola oil is high in polyunsaturated fats and, therefore, unstable which means that during all of the refining and high heat exposure, the omega-3 oils, which could otherwise be heart-healthy, turn into transfats. Canola is in everything because, as I tell my kids, “marketing” and it’s cheap to produce, not because it’s “heart healthy.”

Oh, it’s also genetically modified (thank you, Monsanto). 

Back to this delicious salad…it’s loaded with fiber, vitamin B6, folate, and manganese, and that’s just from the chickpeas.

I hope you love it as much as I do!

Balela Salad Recipe (TJ’s inspired)

Prep time: 15 mins

Salad Ingredients

• 2 cans chickpeas, rinsed & drained

• 1 can black beans, rinsed & drained

• 1 red onion, diced

• 1 garlic clove, diced

• 1 C cherry tomatoes, quartered

• ½ C red, yellow, or orange Bell pepper

• ½ cucumber, diced

• ½ C parsley, chopped

• ¼ C mint, chopped

• Lemon zest

• diced avocado

• arugula

  Dressing Ingredients

• ½ C extra virgin olive oil

• ¼ red wine vinegar

• Juice from 1-3 lemons

• ½ tsp ground Sumac

• Sprinkle of cayenne

• Sea salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. In a large bowl, toss together salad ingredients and set aside.

2. Whisk together dressing ingredients in a small bowl, adding salt & pepper (and cayenne) to taste.

3. Pour dressing over salad and gently toss. 

4. You can eat this straight away, but letting it sit in the refrigerator for 30 minutes really brings together all of the flavors.

5. Add diced avocado and arugula as you eat it (it won’t keep well in the fridge). Crumbled feta also goes really well with this if you’re doing dairy.