Chickpea Salad With Ginger

I saw this recipe on the Minimalist Blog on the NYTimes and was immediately intrigued. I think it was the charming picture of chickpeas nestled among the colorful peppers and deceptively enticing red onion. I hadn't been planning to make the salad immediately, but when I had an unexpected little trip to the grocery store, I picked up the remaining ingredients and made it the following evening. First I give the original recipe, then my modifications, and then my comments:

The original recipe on the Minimalist Blog can be found here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/03/dining/031mrex.html?scp=3&sq=chickpea%20salad&st=cse

Time: 10 minutes with precooked chickpeas

Ingredients:

3 cups cooked or canned chickpeas (rinse canned ones)

2 bell peppers, red, yellow or orange; cored, seeded and diced

1 red onion, diced

1 1-inch piece ginger, peeled and minced, or more to taste

1 tablespoon sugar, optional

3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, or to taste

Salt and pepper to taste

Chopped fresh cilantro leaves.

Instructions:

1. In a dry pan, toast cumin seeds over medium-low heat until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Grind to a powder using a spice mill, coffee grinder or mortar and pestle. If using ground cumin, lightly toast.

2. In a large bowl, toss all ingredients but cilantro. (You can prepare dish up to this point in advance; let sit for up to 2 hours.)

3. Taste and add more salt, pepper or lemon juice if you like, garnish with cilantro, and serve.

Yield: 4 servings.

My modifications:

I didn't have cumin seeds or a ginger root, so I substituted the ground cumin and about 3 teaspoons of powdered ginger. I also didn't have any fresh cilantro, but I did have a whole big punch of fresh parsley, so I threw about 1/3 C. of chopped parsley in the salad as well. I also think this salad could feed 6, not 4.

Thoughts:

This salad was STROOOONNNGG. The red onion was positively pungent. I couldn't eat more than a few bites at a time. At first I solved this problem by eating the salad with smaller scoops of sour cream, but after a time I had to buy a large container of plain yogurt and mix the salad into the yogurt in order to tone down the flavors. I think this salad could be quite excellent if made with a lesser onion-- perhaps a white one instead of red?-- and mixed generously with yogurt and eaten all in one sitting. I imagine having fresh ginger would have given it even more of a bite. Yikes! If made again, however, I would use fresh ginger and omit the parsley and stir the whole thing in some yogurt/sour cream mix and serve fresh.

Nonetheless, this was a good culinary experience for me because it branched me out into a whole new realm of cooking that I had not yet explored. Despite the potency of this project, I am likely to try something in the genre again.