Dryuary Salad with Chickpeas and Feta

Last year, I didn’t eat meat or drink alcohol (unless I was at Blue Hill in New York since I made the reservation in November) for the month of January. This wasn’t a resolution so much as a staving off death measure. For whatever reason, December 2011 was so wet it required a Dryuary. Fortunately, December 2012 wasn’t quite so crazy and a full on Dryuary wasn’t required. But here’s a salad I’ve come to think of as the salad I eat with Rebekah. We made it together on a girl’s night recently and lately it’s worked its way into the assemblage/weeknight/healthy eating lineup. There’s lots of flavor and plenty of protein.

4 cups of greens (I like arugula, butter lettuce and romaine, probably because that was what was on hand)
2 ounces of feta; crumbled
4 ounces chickpeas
4 ounces olives
2 whole oranges; segmented
4 carrots rough chopped and steamed

dressing
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt (to taste- for me, around ¼ teaspoon)
pepper (to taste- for me, around ¼ teaspoon)
1 tablespoon honey
orange juice from the waste from segmenting the oranges
4 ounces fresh herbs (mint, thyme, parsley or some combination thereof are great)

Steam the carrots until they’re still crisp but you can pierce them with a fork without risk of them flying off your plate at an inopportune moment. Once the water is boiling, that’s less than five minutes for me. You’ll notice I found some lovely purple carrots that really added to the beauty of the salad. While they’re steaming, wash and tear the lettuce and put in the bottom of a large salad bowl. Segment the oranges over a bowl. Save the juice for the dressing. Crumble the feta into a pile in one corner of the bowl. Drain and wash the canned chickpeas. Place in one pile over the salad. Pit the olives. Cut in half. Place in a pile in the bowl. Pile the steamed carrots in the bowl. To make the dressing whisk 2 tablespoons olive oil, the chopped herbs, honey, salt and pepper into the orange juice. Omit the honey if the orange juice is really sweet. Pour over salad. Toss and then serve.