Chickpeas and chops

Too hot to spend much time in the kitchen combined with one of my come-in-from-being-out-and-need-to-feed-family days. Not a good day to have anything simmering away on the stove or in the oven. Best option is salad and as we're having meat, something quick to cook, and better yet, cooked outside on the barbie. Of course we then bring it inside to eat away from the horrible hotness out there!

The Australian Women's Weekly was the book I selected only semi-randomly as I went with an appropriately titled Midweek Meals in Minutes. It contains the kind of recipes I feel like I should be able to make up myself, but don't because I am just not that clever I guess. The list might seem quite long, but it's not really and it was very quick to pull together. The suggestion is preparation time of 15 minutes and cooking time of 10. Sounds about right. I did mess about ever-so-slightly with the recipe, but only with quantities of the coriander and tomatoes - extra of both.

Lamb Chops with Spicy Chickpea Salad

8 lamb chump chops (about 900g)
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp finely chopped fresh coriander leaves
2 spring onions, finely sliced
2 tsp sumac
salt to taste
2 x 400g chickpeas, drained and rinsed
4 spring onions, sliced
1 capsicum, finely chopped (and I went with half red half yellow for colour)
2 tomatoes, seeded and chopped
1 bunch coriander leaves, left whole (picked from the stems)

For the Dressing
1/4 cup (60ml) olive oil
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp sweet chilli sauce
2 tsp sumac

Combine the oil, chopped coriander, chopped spring onion, sumac and salt in a bowl and then toss the lamb in on top of it. Cook the lamb on the barbecue or however you like (grilling or frying would be fine) until browned and cooked as you like (pink is best for me). Set it aside to rest while you finish the salad.

For the dressing, simply mix the oil, juice, sauce and sumac together.

For the salad, combine the drained chickpeas, sliced spring onions, capsicum, tomato and coriander leaves in a bowl, toss gently and add about half the dressing, tossing once more.

To serve, put some salad on the plate and a chop or two on top and then drizzle a little of the remaining oil over that.

Serves 4 - or easily for us 2 adults and 3 children