Chickpea and Cucumber Salad

I'm trying to cut most of the meat out of my diet. This isn't proving terribly difficult, except when it comes to lunch.

You see, I am something of a sandwich fanatic.

I appreciate sandwiches on a level that borders on obsessive. When I order a sandwich, I judge it on a variety of factors: flavor combination, bread choice, construction, moisture content. I annoy my loved ones (mostly Scott) either raving about the great ones or (somewhat more frequently) complaining about the bad ones. I *ahem* inform others (mostly Scott) when they are improperly constructing a sandwich and have been known to wrest cutlery from people's (Scott's) hands. You get the idea.

Most sandwiches contain meat. I love deli meat, but the good stuff is expensive. Plus, it doesn't stay fresh long. And let's not talk about the sodium content. So, I think I will leave the great deli sandwiches to the pros (actual delis). But how to continue making sandwiches I love without the meat? Well, here's one way.

Notes: My giddiness for slow cooker beans continues, so I made dried chickpeas in my crock pot. You could easily adapt this to be  Q.E.D. if you use canned beans instead.

If you wanted to bind this a little, you could add a little plain or greek yogurt. I like it just as it is.

Ingredients:
1/2 batch of Slow Cooker Chickpeas (recipe below) or 2 15 oz. cans of chickpeas
1 English cucumber or 2 regular cucumbers, diced
2 shallots, thinly sliced
1 bunch of fresh dill, chopped
2 tablespoons of olive oil
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon black pepper

Directions:

If you used canned chickpeas, pour them into a strainer, rinse them under cold water, and let them drain. If you used the slow cooker beans, make sure they are cool.

While draining the chickpeas, dice the cucumber roughly the same size as the chickpeas. Slice the shallots thin and chop the fresh dill.

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl. Add salt and pepper, drizzle with olive oil, and toss well.

Chill for a few hours in the fridge and serve in a pita pocket or over mixed greens. Enjoy!

For slow cooker chickpeas:
1 bag of dried chickpeas
6 cups hot tap water
10 drops Tabasco
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons kosher salt
2 tablespoons onion powder
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon cumin
2 teaspoons black pepper
3 teaspoons ground thyme

Rinse chickpeas in a colander. Pick out any broken or shriveled beans. Add everything to the slow cooker, stir, and cook on high for 4 hours. When the chickpeas are done, drain them and then spread them on a baking sheet to cool down before you add them to the salad. Freeze what you don't use or save the other half in the fridge to use in a later meal.