Spiced Maple Aubergine & Chickpea Salad
We’re a bit late to the January healthy eating and salad hype. We’ve been caught up with making Fillet-O-Fishless burgers and Mini doughnuts with Passion fruit dips, we regret nothing.
We’re all about tasty vegan food here at The Hungry Herbivores, and our salads doesn’t meant we substitute flavour for healthiness. Yes, you can achieve both in one meal. Crazy.
So we’ve created a beautiful, easy salad you can prepare to impress or for a nutritious lunch. Aubergines (or Eggplants) and Chickpeas are roasted in a sweet, spiced maple marinade, which gives the salad interesting textures and a mix of cooked and raw ingredients. Maple syrup is obviously high in sugar, yet it is an unrefined and actually has many nutritional benefits. Maple syrup contains antioxidants, fights inflammation and fairly high levels of zinc, manganese, potassium and calcium. In moderation, this unrefined sugars can be beneficial to you. Using only 2 tbsp. of maple syrup is plenty to pump flavour into the salad.
Aubergines and chickpeas lie on a bed of kale, tomatoes and almonds. Dark leafy greens are super high in calcium and iron as well as being great cost efficient salad bases that taste good raw. Your body will love you after munching down on this bed of kale. Check out this 26 Science-Backed Health Benefits of Kale article to see why! We massage our kale with olive oil and a tbsp. of the maple marinade. If this isn’t persuasion enough for you to dig into this delicious salad, check out how excellent tomatoes are for your insides!
Try out our sweet-ass salad recipe and tell us what you think!
- 2 tbsp. maple syrup
- 1 minced garlic clove
- 1.5 tbsp. apple cider vinegar
- 1 tbsp. olive oil
- ½ tsp each of cinnamon, paprika, salt and pepper
- ¼ tsp fresh ground nutmeg
- 1 large aubergine, chopped into chunks
- 1 can of chickpeas, (240g drained weight)
- 4 cups Curly Kale (150g)
- 2 cups cherry tomatoes
- ¼ cup whole almonds
- Pre heat the oven at 190C/375F/Gas Mark 5.
- Coat the aubergine chunks in salt for at least 10 minutes. Then rinse and drain well.
- While the aubergine resting in salt, make the marinade by combining all the ingredients in a small bowl and mix to combine.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, place the aubergine on the sheet and drizzle with a little olive oil. Transfer to the oven for 15 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and add the drained chickpeas along with all but 1 TBSP of the marinade. Carefully toss to coat. Return to the oven for another 10 minutes, or until the aubergine is soft.
- While the aubergine & chickpeas are cooking. Massage the kale with a drizzle of olive oil and the reserved tbsp. of marinade. Transfer to a bowl for serving along with the tomatoes and almonds.
- Pour the aubergines and chickpeas on top of the bed of salad. Enjoy.
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