Colorful Vegetable Bowl with Avocado and Tahini with homemade cooked chickpeas and homemade raw tahini

👨‍🍳 Method

For the homemade cooked chickpeas ✓ Homemade · or skip – back to store-bought

1. 1
   Soak the chickpeas overnight in plenty of cold water.

   Bowl

   💡Soak in plenty of water, well above what's being soaked: legumes and grains swell and drink water, and whatever sticks out stays hard. Drain well before continuing.
2. 2
   Drain, cover with plenty of unsalted water and cook 1.5–2 hours, skimming off the foam and skins from time to time, until the chickpeas are very soft and crush easily between your fingers.

   ColanderStovePot

   💡Fully cooked chickpeas crush between your fingers with no resistance at all. Chickpeas that stay a little firm make a grainy spread, and no amount of tahini will fix it.
3. 3
   Drain, reserving a cup of the cooking liquid.

   Colander

For the Salad Dressing

1. 4
   Grind the sesame seeds in a powerful blender about 3 minutes, until smooth paste forms.

   Blender

   💡At first the sesame looks like dry crumbs: keep grinding, scraping down the sides, and after a few minutes it releases its oil and turns liquid.

   💡In a food processor, grind in short pulses and check between pulses: it's easy to go from coarse to paste. (Sesame for tahini, on the other hand, is ground continuously.)
2. 5
   Taste and adjust the seasoning.
3. 6
   In a small bowl, whisk the oil, lemon juice, tahini, garlic and salt until smooth.

   Bowl

To assemble

1. 7
   Cook the broccoli in a pot of salted water 3–4 minutes, until slightly tender.

   StovePot

   💡The water should taste like a seasoned soup, not like sea water: a heaping teaspoon of salt per liter. Add the salt once the water is boiling.
2. 8
   Drain the broccoli and let cool.

   Colander
3. 9
   Put the chickpeas, red cabbage, carrot, broccoli, red pepper and avocado in a large bowl.

   Bowl
4. 10
   Drizzle the dressing on top.
5. 11
   Garnish the salad: sprinkle the parsley on top and serve.