Buffalo Chickpea Salad-Salad

We have to stop meeting like this, readers. I feel like I just hit the "publish" button on my last post and here we are again! I hope you had a great and cool Saturday! I literally spent 3 hours today binge watching my new favorite show: The Great British Baking Show. Have you seen it? No?! Well, get on that! It's on Netflix (originally aired on PBS) and is truly a marriage of education and entertainment. Ever wanted to learn how to make a Swiss Roll? How about a Kouign-Amann? Watch this show! And if you have no idea what these two confections are, watch the show anyway.

So in keeping with the light and fresh theme, I decided to make a meal that I thought would be both filling and yet not heavy and I think I found just the ticket. And no, the second "salad" is not a typo.

Buffalo Chickpea Salad-Salad

2 cans chickpeas, washed and drained
1/2 C non-fat plain Greek yogurt
1 1/4 C blue cheese crumbles
1/2 C buffalo sauce, divided
3 celery stalks, diced and divided
Salt and pepper, to tase
Pinch garlic powder
2 C spinach
1/2 bell pepper, diced
1/2 tomato, diced
Fat-free ranch dressing, for serving
5 tortilla chips, broken apart for serving

In a large bowl, mash chickpeas and yogurt until blended with chunks. This is not easy. Chickpeas aren't very pliable so it'll take some time and muscles. Consider it your workout for the day.

Add in blue cheese crumbles, buffalo sauce (leaving a tad to drizzle on the final salad), 2 stalks' worth of celery and seasonings. Stir to combine and set aside.

Line your serving bowl with spinach leaves and mix in remaining celery, bell pepper and tomato. Top with broken chips. This is totally optional but I always enjoy a little crunch in my salads. You could replace chips with nuts or seeds. Or omit all together. Who am I to judge?

After your salad is assembled, place a heaping 2 Tbsp portion of the chickpea salad in the middle of your vegetable salad and drizzle with remaining hot sauce and ranch dressing.

The blue cheese balanced perfectly with the hot sauce (guess there's a reason they're always paired together), the celery added a refreshing bite to the chickpea mixture and the vegetable salad in place of bread was a nice low-carb option. Now I don't feel so bad about drinking beers with dinner!

You can barely tell that I took any of the chickpea mixture from the mixing bowl at all so I would wager to say that this recipe will probably yield at least 4 servings' worth. 

Hope you enjoy this recipe, readers! Drop me a comment!