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Tunisian Tirshi squash salad
My take on this Tunisian Tirshi squash salad involves big chunks of roasted squash, mixed with creamy chickpeas and sprinkled with sharp garlic and lemon juice. It is a spicy, sour and sweet salad that will be remembered by all who taste it. Feel free to use the traditional pumpkin or butternut squash.
Ingredients
- 6 cups of squash or pumpkin cubed into 1-inch cubes as uniform as possible
- 1 TB cumin
- ½ TB paprika
- 1.5 TB za'atar optional
- 4 TBs olive oil
- 3 cup cooked chickpeas or 1 can of chickpeas, drained
- ½ onion
- 4-6 garlic cloves
- ½ teaspoon hot paprika
- juice of 1.5 lemons
- 1 teaspoon of salt or more, to taste
- A generous handful of cilantro or parsley
Instructions
- Preheat an oven to 375F. Chop your squash into uniform cubes. Cover a baking sheet with aluminum foil, arrange squash on sheet, sprinkle with cumin, paprika, za'atar and olive oil, and mix well to ensure all pieces are coated. Bake at a 375F oven for 20 mins on one side, then 20 minutes on the other (instead of turning all my squash pieces oven, I just switch the oven to the grill setting).
- Meanwhile, mince onion and garlic finely. Squeeze out the juice of the lemon.
- When squash is baked, transfer ¾ of it into a large bowl. Using a fork, mash the squash into a uniform spread with few chunks. Add garlic, lemon juice, onion, hot paprika and salt, and stir well to combine. Add in chickpeas and stir to combine. Finally, add in remaining squash and stir very gently to combine, maybe even with your hands, taking care not to squish the remaining pieces (like I said, I like my salads to have body). Transfer to a nice serving bowl.
- Chop a generous handful of cilantro or parsley, and top the salad with it. Serve immediately, or keep in the fridge to eat for days - this salad keeps extremely well.