Chickpea Salad and Yucca

Per the recommendation of my Aunt Carolyn, I have opened up the carved block to my hopefully interesting food creations. In the future, I would like to broaden the scope to include all of my adventures and integrate this reflecting and writing process into my life, as it is something I really enjoy. So here we go: In retrospect, a glass of white wine would probably have been a better choice for this chickpea salad, but Summit's Horizon Red Ale worked just fine. I modified Bon Appetit magazine's recipe by substituting feta for the parmesan and opting for more lemon juice and a little less olive oil. The yucca was pretty simple: I picked up a couple roots from Cub, boiled them for about fifteen minutes, and then tossed on some berbere, an African spice recommended to me by Carolyn.

Ingredients

• 1 15- to 15 1/2-ounce can chickpeas (garbanzo beans), rinsed, drained
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsley
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 4 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 small garlic clove, pressed
• 1/3 cup (packed) freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• Coarse kosher salt

Preparation

• Combine rinsed and drained chickpeas, chopped fresh basil, chopped Italian parsley, fresh lemon juice, extra-virgin olive oil, and pressed garlic clove in medium bowl. Add grated Parmesan cheese and toss gently to blend all ingredients thoroughly. Season chickpea salad to taste with coarse kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. DO AHEAD Chickpea salad can be made 4 hours ahead. Cover and refrigerate. Serve salad chilled or at room temperature.