Our hearty, chickpea-centric chopped salad began with zapping the chickpeas in the microwave to dry out their plump interiors and rupture their exteriors. Then, pan-frying the slightly dehydrated legumes caused their papery skins to blister and crackle while their dense insides puffed and crisped.
We tossed the crunchy chickpeas with a zippy spice mix and set them aside to cool before scattering them atop a salad of arugula, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, sweet-hot Peppadew peppers, and salty-rich feta. A gutsy honey-Dijon vinaigrette finished things off with sweetness and tang.