Simple chick pea and kidney bean salads

All recipes copyright Anna Vaught.

Here'a a little salad we eat frequently. Just right for the weather we're having -- and I'll suggest a few variations.

A delicious chick pea salad. And a kidney bean salad. Both very simple.

The only time I use tinned beans is for a kidney bean salad or if I am making falafel or another kind of little fritter. I think the texture of chick peas is ruined by canning and that'll show if you're going to put them in a salad. So this is what I do.

Take a bag of chick peas and soak them for six to eight hours, then bring to the boil, turn the heat down and simmer until they are tender but not soft. Drain them and, if you don't have time to let them cool, rinse them under the cold tap and drain very well. Make a dressing of extra virgin oil, Maldon sea salt, grindings of black pepper and the juice of a lemon. Keep tasting to see if it needs anything else in your view. Now add a teaspoon of ground red chillis, two of ground cumin, whisk these in to the dressing and pour over the salad. Mix it well, which in my case would be with the hands. I would usually add a good handful of chopped chives or three or four chopped spring onions, too. If you wanted to, at this time you could add some finely chopped mint and, perhaps leaving out the cumin, a good handful of finely chopped lemon balm leaves or the same (or maybe both: test your palate!) or marjoram. These are the herbs I have growing abundantly in my garden and which are very easy to grow. To this salad, I would add nothing else because it's simple and beautiful as it is. Sometimes, later in the summer, I will use (minus the cumin and chilli) both the flowers and leaves of the nasturtiums in the garden: they are peppery and delicious. And they look beautiful. One year, I even pickled the seed heads in white wine vinegar and used them a replacement for capers. Oh -- or how about lots of finely chopped wild garlic, the leaves and flowers? Food for free and you've still just got time to go and gather it if you're in Blighty.

The kidney bean salad.

If you want to cook the beans from scratch, don't forget to soak them well and that, with kidney beans, you MUST give them a good ten minute boiling to destroy the toxin levels therein. Today, I'm using two cans. Ideally, the no added salt or sugar jobbies, but I've had quite good results with 'value' brands. Recession and all, you could, depending on the supermarket, get two cans for 22p all in. Or less. Just rinse them really well.

Into a big bowl they go. Make a dressing to taste with sunflower oil, lemon juice (or perhaps white wine vinegar) sea salt and freshly-ground pepper. There are a myriad variations of what I might put, but I do think that simplest is best and I am also not keen on multi-coloured salads (although strangely, I do like to add edible flowers). So, how about a medium onion, sliced into the thinnest rings you can imagine. Leave this to steep, with the beans, in the dressing and it will not be too pungent. I think that a big handful of little black olives, some drained and slightly de-salted capers and about half a block of feta cheese (crumbled) are nice additions. If you are using any of these, you probably won't want to add salt in the dressing.

You could put both these salads out with another simple green salad and perhaps a cold roast chicken with some decent bread -- and feed a lot of people. Or just choose one salad and make it dinner for two. We ate the chick pea salad with a big piece of brie and a few chunks of cucumber.

A note on dressing. How many times is your salad either swimming in it or undressed if you go to a restaurant? These big bean salads can take a bit of steeping more, but for anything with leaves or soft vegetables, dress at the last minute and do it so that the salad is glossy and coated but not drenched.