This is a great summer salad that utilizes chickpeas, eggplant and artichokes mainly. Light and refreshing, yet super tasty and pretty quick to make. You could either serve this as a meal on its own, as part of an antipasto platter, or perhaps next to a piece of cooked meat or chicken. 
Lime and herbs are prominent here, it gives the salad a very refreshing note. The flavored yogurt sauce on the side really adds so much, it would be a shame to pass on it, however of course you could serve the salad without it. We have chosen to add some fried bacon to this salad because, well everything tastes better with bacon! However if you want a vegetarian salad, or you just don't want to bother with that extra step, then feel free to skip it. About 4 servings
Ingredients: - olive oil
- 4 cups of cooked chickpeas (we cooked our own, however feel free to use canned ones, just make sure to rinse them carefully in that case)
- 1 eggplant
- 1 can of whole artichoke hearts
- 1/2 red onion
- 4 slices of bacon (can be skipped if you want a vegetarian salad)
- 1 lime
- 2 tsp white balsamic vinegar (other options would be red or white wine vinegar)
- 1 tbsp freshly chopped herbs (we used parsley, rosemary and mint)
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- salt and pepper
Yogurt sauce: - 2 cups of thick, full fat greek yogurt (or sour cream)
- some lime zest
- 2 tsp freshly chopped herbs (we used the same as the for the dressing)
- 1 garlic clove
- salt and pepper
 Method:
Cook the chickpeas if you're not using canned. Slice the eggplant, salt each slice and fry them in a bit of olive oil. Do in batches, ideally in a large cast iron pan or griddle. Once you're done with the eggplant, fry whole slices of bacon until crispy, set aside. Thinly slice the red onion. Open up the can with artichokes, rinse well and cut in bite size pieces. Make the dressing: zest the lime and reserve about a third of the zest. Squeeze the lime, add the vinegar, the chopped herbs and salt and pepper. Whisk in the olive oil. Make the yogurt sauce: stir the yogurt along with reserved lime zest, grated garlic clove, herbs and salt and pepper. Set aside in the fridge until you're ready to eat. Now, chop up the fried eggplant and add to the dressing. Also add the chickpeas, the red onion and the artichokes and mix well. Chop up the cooked bacon, if not serving right away, put away so it stays crispy. Otherwise, sprinkle on top of the salad.
Serve the chickpeas salad with a generous dollop of yogurt sauce. This salad could either be served warm, at room temperature or cold which makes it very versatile.
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