Chickpea Salad with Sun-Dried Tomatoes

This is a quick simple salad for a lunch or side dish at dinner.  After being at an afternoon gathering with friends and a kitchen island full of delicious appetizers, I came home and turned on music by The National, both the "Alligator" and "Boxer" albums, and made this salad for a late dinner.  I also made strawberry ice cream, but that is a post for tomorrow.

I was able to use the sun-dried tomaotes that I made last fall and they were very good. I wasn't sure how they would turn out since I didn't have any directions for making them. I simply dried the tomatoes and poured olive oil over them and put them in the refrigerator. I'm not sure I needed to put them in the refrigerator, but I didn't know when I would be using them and I didn't want the oil to get rancid. Of course the oil solidified and the jar of tomatoes looked rather disgusting, but once I took them out and wiped of the oil they were very tasty, and worth the effort.

I had a salad similar to this at a large gathering and despite asking several people who brought this delicious salad, I never did find out.  So I located a recipe in Bon Appetit that was similar, though something is missing from this salad and I can't quite figure it out.  I couldn't locate cumin seeds so I had to use ground cumin, not sure how much difference that made.  It was good though and I have copied the recipe as Bon Appetit had it with the addition of artichokes. 
 

 
 
Chickpea Salad with Sun-Dried Tomatoes
adapted from Bon Appetit July 2002
Makes 6 servings

1/4 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon cumin seeds

2 - 15 1/2 ounce cans garbanzo beans (chickpeas), drained, rinsed
1 cucumber, peeled, seeded, chopped (about 1 1/3 cups)
1 15 ounce can artichoke hearts, drained, chopped
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/3 cup thinly sliced drained oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper

Combine oil and cumin seeds in heavy small saucepan.  Cook over medium heat 5 minutes to blend flavors, stirring occasionally.  Cool completely.

Combine remaining ingredients in large bowl.  Add cumin oil and toss to blend.  Season salad to taste with salt and pepper.  (Can be made 1 day ahead.  Cover and refrigerate.  Bring to room temperature before serving.)