It’s a big day for me today. I’m interviewing the senior manager of sustainability for McDonald’s, (I’ve interviewed him many times) and I’m also interviewing a researcher from Saskatoon who was one of the people responsible for making GM canola. Then I have to write stories, exercise, make brownies and go to book club.

Today I’m grateful to have a job that I love. I feel like I do something that matters. I love being a reporter. I don’t work for Postmedia, but I had a hard time not tearing up at my desk as I read about the layoffs yesterday. It was a sad day for journalism. I’ve never worked with these people, but I consider them my peers.

In happier news, my pulse project has inspired me to start thinking a lot more about food and cooking. I also realized how much I have to stretch outside my comfort zone. No one wants to read 52 weeks of recipes featuring black beans, red lentils and chickpeas (my favourite pulses). Stay tuned for recipes that will feature split peas, beluga lentils and faba beans. Yes, I’m going to try it all. If you’re on Pinterest, I’ve created a pulse board. So you can follow me on there to look at pulse recipes. (It’s under “Alexis Kienlen”) I just joined Pinterest this week.

Today’s recipe features chickpeas (again). I had some leftover beets and some leftover chickpeas, so I decided to make this salad from Leanne Brown’s Good and Cheap Cookbook, a lovely cookbook for omnivores.

To make Beet Chickpea salad, you need:
2 or 3 beets
1 cup chickpeas (cooked if you use dried) or canned. Drain them. (I use canned. I’m lazy)
3 tablespoons peanuts

Dressing
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1 teaspoon chili sauce
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt and pepper, to taste

1. Peel the raw beets, removing the stems if necessary, then shred them with a box grater. Place the shredded beets in a medium-size bowl with the chickpeas and peanuts.
2. Stir the lime juice, chili sauce, olive oil and salt and pepper together in a small bowl to make the dressing. Taste and adjust the salt and pepper to your liking.
3. Add the dressing to the bowl with the beets and mix to combine. Let everything sit about 5 minutes so everything can mingle together.

Serves 2 as a side. (I just ate it as a lunch for two days)

I used golden beets, because that’s what I had leftover. I used salted peanuts, so I didn’t bother to add additional salt or pepper. And I used sambal for the chili sauce, but I think this would be nice with some Thai chili sauce. This salad tasted better the first day than it did on the second.

I need to plug the cookbook that this recipe came from.
“Good and Cheap” was created by Leanne Brown, a former Edmontonian who now lives in New York City. The book contains a lot of simple, practical recipes. This would be a good cookbook for the starting cook. She moved to New York to study food studies and decided to create a cookbook that fit the needs of people living on food stamps in the United States. So each of the recipes has tips on how to eat well and make good food that doesn’t break the bank. If you would like to download a copy of the book, you can go to Leanne’s website at www.leannebrown.com and download a PDF for free. She also takes donations. If you want to get a print copy of the book, you can buy it at online or at a local bookstore. For every copy sold, another copy goes to a food charity or non-profit that enables people to access safe, cheap and healthy food.

(I have a certificate in food security, so I’m quite fond of this idea.)