Purple, green, salty, sweet, tangy and very crunchy. That’s the Big Crunchy Salad! I almost don’t want to write out a recipe for it because it’s so easy to put together.
You’ll be mixing chickpeas, courgette, baby spinach, red cabbage and feta cheese with brown rice. In my case, I used a packet of Seeds Of Change Organic Quinoa and Brown Rice but you can cook your brown rice and/or quinoa from scratch. (Like I said yesterday with the butternut in the microwave, I’m all for quick & easy food prep especially on a week day.)
The only measuring you’ll be doing is for the honey-lemon dressing, and even then you can adjust the lemon and honey to your liking.
I just have to warn you: when it comes to eating this bad boy, your jaw is going to get a workout and it’s a deceptively filling salad with a lot of protein and fibre.
Rice, chickpea, feta salad with honey lemon dressing

Ingredients
- 1 tin cooked chickpeas
- 3/4 of a pack of feta cheese
- 2 handfulls baby spinach
- 1 handful red cabbage, thinly sliced
- 1 medium courgette, grated
- 2 spring onions, sliced
- 240g cooked rice and/or quinoa
- 1 lemon, juiced
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp honey
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
Directions
- Make the dressing: combine the lemon juice, olive oil, honey and mustard.
- Cook the rice according to the packet instructions.
- In a medium bowl, toss together the warm rice, vegetables, cheese and chickpeas. The heat from the rice should wilt the baby spinach slightly.
- Mix well and pour over the honey-lemon dressing.
- Enjoy!