Silverbeet, potato and chickpea salad with tahini and lemon dressing

This is the season for silverbeet or chard, and I love to serve this salad warm in winter. This particular salad uses the stalks of the silverbeet which many people tend to discard. It is my version of a Lebanese salad which was invented to make use of the stalks which are usually left behind when the leaves are used in either a silverbeet, lemon and lentil soup (recipe on this link)http://wp.me/p4etmr-hf or stuffed silverbeet rolls.

My mother usually boils the chopped stalks and tosses them with either tahini (sesame seed paste), sea salt and lemon or a vinaigrette of virgin olive oil, lemon and salt, which I also do at times.

Silverbeet, potato and chickpea salad with tahini and lemon dressing

Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

stalks of 1 bunch silverbeet (4 cups)
2 silverbeet leaves
2 medium size potatoes
200 g canned chickpeas (1/2 cup)
4 table-spoons tahini paste
juice of 1 & 1/2 lemon (1/2 cup)
1/4 cup of warm water
sea salt to taste 1/2 to 1 tea-spoon

Rinse silverbeet stalks really well and chop into 2 cm wide pieces and then rinse again. Cover with water, bring water to boiling point then simmer for about 20 minutes or until really tender. In the meantime peel and wash potatoes, cut into two centimetre cubes and place in a microwave-steamer and microwave for 8 minutes. You can also steam or boil the potatoes until tender on top of the stove.

Place tahini paste and lemon juice in a bowl and mix. Drain silverbeet stalks and pour on top of juice and tahini mixture. Add salt and warm water and toss well. Add potatoes on top after draining if you had boiled them. Rinse the chickpeas really well and add on top. Mix all together. The potatoes will absorb the water, add extra water if needed. You don’t want it to be runny but not too dry either. If you are making the salad the traditional way using only the silverbeet stalks then do not add any extra water.

Ps: I much prefer to steam the potatoes, they retain their shape and do not absorb excess water. I find that they taste much better when cooked this way.