greek garbanzo bean salad

This is a good salad but I usually only make it one time each summer...when we have a lot of cherry tomatoes, and sometimes cucumbers, from the garden.

The ingredients don't have to be exact- you can adjust them to taste.

Greek Garbanzo Bean Salad

2 cans garbanzo beans, drained ( chick peas same thing)
2 medium cucumbers, diced (peel  and seed if desired)
1 large can black olives, drained,sliced
15 or more cherry tomatoes, halved
3/4 cup diced onions
2 cloves garlic, minced
3/4 cup crumbled feta cheese
1/2 cup bottled Italian dressing
2 Tblsp. lemon juice
garlic salt
pepper
basil

 

I had on hand this block of cotija cheese that I used in place of Feta. It is very similar..a soft, tangy cheese...but Feta is really better in this.

Toss together all chopped veggies and cheese. In a salad like this I prefer that all the ingredients are diced in nearly the same size chunks...so you get a combination of ingredients with each bite...except onions and garlic...smaller is better for those!

Mix lemon juice, salt, pepper and basil with Italian dressing. Pour this over the veggie mixture and refrigerate for a couple of hours .

Taste and add more dressing or seasonings if needed.

We had this as a side dish with Sunday dinner. My older son said he was going to add a cooked and shredded chicken breast to the leftover portion that he took home, and make it a main dish salad meal.  I may try out that idea,too!