What to Make This Weekend: This Gorgeous Brunch Platter

When most of us think of a leisurely weekend brunch, we picture pancakes, waffles and jam-slathered muffins. Delicious, sure, but often those carb-heavy brunches can send us straight to the sofa instead of outside on that afternoon hike. Here’s a fresh idea for a weekend breakfast or brunch: Mediterranean Salad with Crispy Chickpeas. Your first thought might be… salad for breakfast? But hear me out. 

While in North America, sweet breakfasts are fairly typical, in other parts of the world, savory breakfasts are the norm. In the Middle East, chopped breakfast salads that include tomatoes, cucumbers and parsley are commonly eaten with eggs, pita and other fixings. This recipe is inspired by that concept, with hard-boiled eggs, crispy chickpeas and hummus.

I’ll be the first to admit that it’s a bit quirky that we included chickpeas in two forms in this breakfast salad: both hummus and roasted chickpeas. When our team tasted this dish, we tried to pair down to just one, yielding a heated internal debate on the merits of each. So in the end we included both, but if you wanted to choose one, that’s perfectly fine. 

You can make all the components of the salad the night before. Prep the veg, make the dressing, roast the chickpeas and boil the eggs – then assemble in the morning with minimal fuss. If you want to skip the herby dressing, you can also use a high-quality EVOO and lemon and it’ll still be delicious. 

Use this recipe as is, or use it as a guide and put your own spin on it. Add olives, pickled turnips or baked eggplant slices; switch to fried or scrambled eggs; or, skip the eggs entirely and pan-fry halloumi cheese slices instead. 

Let us know if you come up with any new ways of customizing this Mediterranean breakfast salad – we’d love to hear how it turned out! 

Get the recipe

Related Content:

• Why the Green Mediterranean Diet is Taking Off
• 5 Fresh Hummus Bowl Recipes