One of my most favorite pass-times is to watch food channels and cookery shows. Though I don’t eat or cook meat, I am most intrigued by the different cooking techniques and end up watching everything regarding food. It so happened that I saw pita bread for the first time on one of the food network channels. Shortly after that, when we were on a lunch date I had the chance of tasting the pita bread along with hummus. As much as I liked the hummus, I was not very fond of the dried out version of the pita bread from that restaurant. Soon after I forgot about the whole pita bread saga. Few months back, in one of the Good Food magazine issues, I saw a salad stuffed in to the pita bread and that it was being called as pita pocket. Again, I was intrigued by the name and of course the idea. Sadly though, I have never made pita bread at home nor have I found it in the super markets here. Last week, surprisingly I found whole wheat pita bread in one of the stores and immediately grabbed it with both my hands. My initial thoughts were to make a Falafel based salad or stuffing for the bread. Having tried Falafel only recently, I wanted something different and I ended up making Greek style chickpea salad. For the spread, I made a simple mint based creamy yogurt. Pita breads were toasted, mint yogurt was spread and the chickpea salad was stuffed. Arranging took less than a couple of mins and it makes for such a filling and tasty meal.
To make Greek Style Chickpea Salad Pita Pockets with Mint Yogurt Spread Serves – 2 Time to prepare – 15mins What I used – For the Chickpea Salad
Whole-wheat Pita Bread, 2 Boiled Chickpeas, 2 cups Finely Chopped Onion, 3 tablespoon (one medium sized onion) Finely Chopped Capsicum, ½ cup (one medium sized capsicum) Lemon Zest, 1 tsp Lemon Juice, 1 tbsp Olive Oil, 1 tsp Finely Chopped Garlic, 2 tsp Finely Chopped Coriander, ½ cup Paprika Powder, 2 tsp Roasted Cumin Powder, 2 tsp Salt, as req
For the Greek Style Mint Yogurt
Thick Yogurt, 1 cup Finely Chopped Mint Leaves, 3 tbsp Salt, as req
How I made –
Note: Soak chickpeas for atleast 8hrs and boil in a pressure cooker for atleast three whistles. To get the lemon zest, Use a fine grater to grate the skin of the lemon.
