Tomato and Cucumber Salad

I have so many recipes to post still.  As usual, every day life has taken over and I am totally backlogged!  I hope to be able to post all of my recent recipes before the close of the month.  This is a simple, summery salad.  I actually had this as my lunch for yesterday, and it was de-licious!  My landlords have a vegetable garden that takes up their entire backyard.  One day, as I opened my door to come upstairs from a day at work, my landlady had left a bag full of cucumbers.  Nothing beats garden fresh produce!  These cucumbers were humongous!  Often we will get cucumbers and have cucumbers in vinegar for a side dish with dinner.  I decided that instead of a regular garden salad, I wanted to switch it up just a little bit!  I used chickpeas, but you could also use red kidney beans.  I added the tiny bit of feta cheese I had left (about a tablespoon's worth), but it wasn't enough to actually be detected so you could omit it if you wanted to.  I sent some over to my Mom to try, and she barely got a spoonful.  The younger of my two brothers scarfed it.  I guess that's a good sign, right?

Yields about 6 servings


Ingredients:

• 2 large cucumbers
• 3-4 tomatoes (I used vine tomatoes)
• 1 tablespoon of crumbled feta cheese
• 1/2 red onion
• 1 can of chickpeas
• 1 teaspoon of olive oil
• 4 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
• 1/3 cup of green olives (optional)

Directions:

• Drain and rinse your chickpeas.

• Cut cucumbers in half lengthwise, and then into 1-inch thick slices.

• Chop tomatoes into chunks and add to bowl.

• Slice onion thinly and add to bowl.

• Add the rest of the ingredients (vinegar, oil, cheese and olives) and toss to coat.