Making the Best Lowfat Spinach and Garbanzo Beans Salad with Hemp Seeds

I love to create salad recipes. There are millions of ways to make salads depending on mood, time of year, time of day, accompaniment, and the like.

This spinach and garbanzo lunch salad is one of my favorites.

Note: Garbanzo beans and Chick Peas are the same bean, but I really love saying Garbanzo, so Garbanzo it is. A good salad refreshes and revitalises at the same time.

Here's how to make it along with some useful information.

Last night I went to the grocery. My goal: to get some salad fixin's. It is a rare occasion that I go to the grocery and actually go by a list. Sure I do sometimes. Yes I'm aware that if I go by a list I may not overspend. But I do things a bit differently. You see:

• I like to create and tweak recipes.
• I know how much I'm willing to spend and I always play the game of "how much under budget can you be".
• I don't know what items will look best at the grocer or farmers market.
• I like to feel out my food, sort of like an artist preparing to paint an idea.
• I have to have perfect silence when I'm shopping so that I can think and combine tastes and smells in my head.
• I normally take my time browsing.
• I go back and forth on a half planned route.
• I never watch other people shop, unless I'm looking for ideas.

This time I wanted a salad that had bite, a bit of warmth, that melted, that crunched, that was a bit exotic but not too much. I wanted a salad that wouldn't take too much thought, but that would delight. I knew that I wanted my main ingredient to be organic baby spinach leaves. I wanted it to be a main course dinner salad.

I had a craving for beets after seeing a salad made with beets, pine nuts, and baby arugula in the December Food Network Magazine that I'd picked up a day or two before (I love to get these magazines for recipes and to thumb through for sparks of awesome ideas like the one I was about to have). And I'd go from there. I thought about possibly adding some sort of fish dish on the side, but as I'm not often in the mood for fish, therefore lacking in too much in the way of fish skills, and those at the seafood counter were after sea food instead (a long line to boot), I decided to ixnay that idea. Wasn't in the mood for a meat or poultry addition, not for this salad anyway.

I remained on the lookout for simple, hearty ingredients.

• A package of pre-washed organic baby spinach
• Red, ripe tomatoes, with just enough give when pressed (no time to wait for them to counter ripen)
• Thin, firm, English cucumber (make sure the end tips aren't squishy)
  
• Organic carrot bunch
• A small, teeny in fact, container of pre shredded mizithra (a Greek cheese used for sprinkling much like one would with Parmesan, though note that while you can use parmesan in abundance, you cannot do so with mizithra due to its strength)
• Valbreso feta (another Greek cheese, this one made by Valbreso my most favourite brand and so tasty that I will pay whatever price for it, though I find the cost to be reasonable for the quality. I'm a Valbreso feta girl all the way.)
• pitted Greek Kalamata olives from the olive bar
• a can of Full Circle brand organic garbanzo beans (ingredients garbanzo beans, water, salt - nice!)
• A glass bottle of Marzetti All Natural Light Balsamic Vinaigrette (80% less fat than Regular Balsamic Dressing, yet nice and thick, rich and flavorful)

• Canister of Hemp Seeds for added omega 3's. A great source for omega 3 fatty acids, actually, and since I wasn't going to have any fish, I thought this would be a different, healthy, and interesting route to go. (Hemp seed can be a cheap and sustainable source of protein and is rich in nutritionally important Omega-6 and Omega-3 fatty acids, B-vitamins, contains vitamins A, C, and E, Beta Carotene, and is high in dietary fiber.)

• Croutons, the plainer the better in this case as I wanted the flavours of the various ingredients to the key and those didn't include caeser, cheddar, garlic, or Italian.

The only thing left to do with this tasty and healthy salad is enjoy, and enjoy we did. Hope you try this wonderful recipe and let us know about it.

• Serving dish - In a large glass or ceramic bowl (I used my Pottery Barn Great White ceramic serving bowl I purchased a few years ago) place washed, dried, cooled, organic baby spinach leaves.
• Tomato - Use a garnishing knife to take out the top button of the tomato (your tomato should have been refrigerated for a couple of hours) and then slice with an all purpose knife (make sure it's sharp so the tomato's juices don't release all over the place). Place on a plate and lightly sprinkle with course kosher salt. Let stand while all the other ingredients are being prepared. Just long enough to let the salt work on the tomato, just short enough to ensure your tomato slices are still cool.
• English cucumber - With the skin still on, finely chop your English cucumber. Place slices on top of the layer of salted tomato slices (this way your cucumber gets a tad of salt as well).
• Organic garbanzo beans - Open your can of organic garbanzo beans (aka chick peas), pour out water, rinse and drain beans. Pour the whole amount over the spinach in your salad bowl.
• Gourmet cheese - Here's where you want to sprinkle the shredded mizithra. It will bring out the flavours of the chick peas. It is a salt free cheese, however there is still a strength of that salty sort much like Parmesan, in its flavour and aroma. Adding your mizithra now will allow the garbanzos/chick peas, some time to get to know each other while the rest of the salad is being prepared. Your taste buds will appreciate this.
  
• Add - Dump your sliced tomatoes and cucumbers over your spinach and garbanzo.
• Olives - Plop some pitted Greek Kalamata olives over the top (I put in two handfuls for the amount I make)
• More gourmet cheese - It's finally time to crumble in your Valbreso feta. Be as liberal or stingy as you want. I myself like to be liberal with my Valbreso, so I will easily use 6 oz for this recipe, but mind you I'm feeding six people this main course salad. Not to mention the fact that both the Valbreso feta and the mizithra are both very healthy cheeses.
• Hemp seed - Sprinkle over with your hemp seeds
• Mix - gently with your salad tongs
• Croutons - Top with your croutons
• Fat free salad dressing - Serve, allowing everyone to top with their own amount of salad dressing (be sure to shake your dressing well, no matter what kind you use, though I must say the Marzetti All Natural Light Balsamic Vinaigrette makes for a divine dressing for this particular salad.