(upbeat music) - Today we're making a green goddess salad with crispy chickpeas.

I love this salad, because the dressing is full of herbs and it has a beautiful, bright flavor.

Let's start by making those crispy chickpeas.

This is basically a way to add some crunch and texture to your salad without necessarily using croutons.

Garbanzo beans or chickpeas have a lot of protein and their magic trick is that when you roast them, they get crispy.

So, I have already rinsed and drained one 14 ounce can of chickpeas, and transferred them to a parchment lined baking sheet.

Anytime you want an ingredient to get crispy in the oven, you wanna take a little extra time to get out any extra water, because ultimately you'll just end up steaming the ingredient, rather than letting them get crisp.

To this I will add a couple teaspoons of olive oil.

That'll definitely help them get crispy.

And I've made a little seasoning blend here of cumin, cayenne for a little spiciness, and paprika so that with every bite of the crispy chickpea, you also get some of this seasoning.

And then of course, salt.

Now we'll just get in there, make sure these are all evenly coated, spread them out evenly so they have room to breathe.

And we'll bake these in the oven at 425 degrees for about 20 minutes or until they've crisped up.

While the chickpeas are roasting, let's get started on this dressing.

The base of the dressing is Greek yogurt, which I love, because it means that it's a little bit healthier.

And to this, I will add two tablespoons of white wine vinegar.

You can also use just regular white vinegar or apple cider vinegar if that's what you have.

We're also adding half a shallot, and since we're putting it in the food processor, I'll just roughly chop it, and one clove of garlic, and in it goes.

And now for the herbs.

I've chosen to use basil, dill, parsley, and mint, but you can have a lot of fun with this recipe and try a variety of different herb combinations.

One that I never exclude is the mint.

The mint adds that brightness and makes it feel so fresh.

A tablespoon of Dijon mustard and a tablespoon of olive oil.

And as always, salt and pepper.

It's okay to be generous with your salt here, because you're adding flavor to not just the dressing itself, but all of the ingredients.

Let's give this a whirl and our dressing will be ready.

(food processor running) Okay, our dressing is ready.

The chickpeas have roasted, so let's put our salad together.

The chickpeas have roasted, and I know that they're ready, because they've taken on a darker, golden color and they've also started to kind of crack open in places.

I have one Persian cucumber here that I'm just going to slice very thinly, and I also have one avocado.

What I'll do for this avocado is just cube it.

For a green goddess salad, because the dressing is definitely on the thicker side, you want to use greens that have a crunch to them.

In this case, we're using little gems.

And what's so special about little gem lettuce is besides their very cute name, is that they're actually a cross between a romaine lettuce and butter lettuce, so they have the crisp and the crunch of romaine and the sweetness of butter lettuce.

And now we're going to add our dressing.

I'm gonna go with a couple of tablespoons to start, and we can always add more later.

So, let's just give this a toss.

Okay, this is looking good.

I always like to transfer salad to a fresh plate.

How gorgeous is that?

And we have our avocado.

There.

And, finally, let's add those crispy chickpeas.

Now I feel like the salad has officially come together with this beautiful color.

Our green goddess salad is ready with our roasted, crispy chickpeas, our little, gem lettuces, and of course our very herbaceous, green goddess dressing.

And now all that's left to do is eat.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music)