Quick Chickpea Spinach Salad

I got home after 10 to a completely barren kitchen having totally neglected the fact that I was going straight to a pot luck from work the next day. Of everyone I know, the girl with the food blog is not allowed to show up with something store bought – what to do??

I remembered this easy-assembly salad I had made for a staff lunch at a former job that is not only healthy and delicious, but you can pick up everything you need at the grocery store, and assemble it in without a kitchen. Perfect!

I dipped out of work in the middle of the day and bought:
– A can of chickpeas (the kind that doesn’t need a can opener to open!)
– A package of grape tomatoes
– A package of baby spinach – in one of those plastic containers that would later become my salad bowl
– A red onion – this part is optional, but it gives a nice punch, so if your plastic knife can manage it I would recommend it

I also brought with me a small container with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, since I didn’t want to have to buy those! And then I got some salt and pepper packets from a bodega near my work.

– Rinse the tomatoes in the sink and save the container for a few handfuls of spinach (they pack those things pretty full, and you need room for the other stuff)

– I like to cut the tomatoes in half because they’re easier to eat in a salad that way. Time consuming, but your plastic knife can definitely handle that! Add the cut tomatoes to the spinach package

– Rinse the chick peas and dry them a little before adding them to the spinach package

– Cut up your red onion – probably not the whole thing – and I would say add it to the dressing, not the spinach container, for two reasons: 1) the acid in the dressing will soften the onions a bit and make them less raw-oniony. 2) raw onions smell, even through the spinach package, especially when it’s been a couple hours of non-refrigeration – the people on the subway were not super excited to sit next to me on my way to this pot luck!

– Assemble the salad dressing: oil, balsamic, salt, pepper, and maybe your red onion

– Wait until you get where you’re going to put the dressing on the salad. Then you can just shake the whole thing up in the container, or if they have a nice big bowl you can use that!