I love trying new ingredients when I see them on a cooking programme. Puffed rice is my new thing. I don’t know what I expected but it is just a savoury cereal puff. Its genius putting it in a salad as it adds such a nice texture and nuttiness. I love textures in salads, and this worked really well. The crunchy cumin and mustard seeds are really nice pop of flavour. I am also a little bit obsessed with sun blushed tomatoes at the moment. I feel I have made a seasonal transition. I was eating jarred sun dried tomatoes over the winter, I have moved on to sun blush and then it will be the uk summer so fresh toms!This dish can be used as a salad, side or a main.

Ingredients (serves 2)

• 1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• ½ tsp black mustard seeds
• ½ tsp ground cumin
• 6 sun blush deli tomatoes, roughly chopped
• 70g chargrilled deli peppers in oil, chopped
• 4 tbsp puffed rice
• ½ tsp zaatar
• ¼ tsp fine sea salt
• Crack of fresh black pepper
• 1 tbsp oil, I used walnut
• Juice of half lemon
• ¼ tsp pomegranate molasses
• Oil for frying

Directions

1. Add the chickpeas into a bowl. Heat a splash of oil in a frying pan, add the cumin, mustard seeds and ground cumin. Fry for about 40 sec until you hear the seeds start to pop. Tip into the chickpeas.
2. Next make the dressing, in a jar add the walnut oil, lemon juice and pomegranate molasses. Give it a shake to combine. Set aside
3. Add the tomatoes, peppers, zaatar and salt and pepper to the chickpeas. Pour in the dressing and give it a good toss so everything is combined. Next add the puffed rice and give it a light fold through so they keep their texture. Serve and enjoy.