Marinated Vegetable Salad

Marinated Vegetable Salad

A few days ago, I went into my refrigerator and grabbed a bunch of vegetables.  I was just not getting around to eating them and I did not want them to go to waste.  I tossed in some garbanzo beans and whipped up an easy vinaigrette dressing and... viola!... a simple and delicious marinated vegetable salad. This recipe makes four generous servings and I've been enjoying it with grilled chicken.  For this salad, I was going to try to replicate a salad dressing that I love from our local pizzeria called "Pizza Madness". I can tell the dressing has olive oil, red wine vinegar, and maybe dried Italian herbs (????), but instead I made up the dressing I posted about in my last post called "Merlino's Belvedere Salad".

This would be a great salad to bring to backyard BBQ or a potluck at work.  This salad is great when freshly made and is great at room temperature.  The one problem with the leftovers is that, after being in the refrigerator for a few days, dressings or vinaigrettes made with extra virgin olive oil tend to firm up a bit (the oil becomes more solid).  This is not attractive visually and the texture is a bit off putting in the mouth.  I planned to have this for lunch today so I just let the leftover salad sit out on the counter top at room temperature for about an hour and the oil in the dressing returned to a nice liquid state which was a bit more appealing to eat.

The proportions in this salad are very flexible. Like I said, I was just using up leftover vegetables. Feel free to add more or less of any ingredients based upon what you have on hand or what you really like.  I do love the combination of vegetables I used.  I think cannellini beans (white kidney beans) or dark red kidney beans would also be very good in this salad in place of the garbanzo beans.  Crumbled feta cheese or blue cheese crumbles would also be a delicious addition to this salad.

Marinated Vegetable Salad

1 can garbanzo beans (chickpeas), drained and rinsed (15.5 ounce size)
1/2 red bell pepper, coarsely chopped
1/2 to 2/3 of an English cucumber, sliced and cut into quarters
1/2 of a small red onion, finely sliced
1 cup grape tomatoes

Dressing Ingredients:
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons dried basil

Combine the salad ingredients (vegetables and beans) in a medium sized bowl. Set aside

Combine the salad dressing ingredients in a bowl (I used a Pyrex measuring cup with a spout). Stir with a whisk or fork to combine.

Pour the dressing over the vegetable/bean mixture and toss to coat.  Allow to marinate at room temperature for 10 to 15 minutes before serving.  If desired, sprinkle salad with a pinch of salt before serving.

Enjoy!