A colorful millet and chickpea salad

Today's recipe is intended to be a true tribute to summer , with many of the vegetables that symbolize this season, cooked with different cooking styles and combining all 5 flavors (sweet, salty, spicy, bitter and human) to create a nutritionally balanced but also very dynamic dish.

Surely, with the heat, we're all less inclined to spend time in the kitchen, and a good tip is "when we prepare something that requires a long cooking time, prepare a lot of it; it will be useful for the following days, and it will also optimize gas or electricity consumption and our time!" I usually do this with whole grains, legumes, and some vegetables. I keep cooked foods separate in the refrigerator, so I can combine them and make different dishes in just a few minutes.

The ingredients, cooking styles, and flavors are combined to enhance and enrich the dish's vital energy. I chose millet and chickpeas because they are particularly suited to late summer, characterized by their sweet flavor and yellow color. I quickly sautéed the peppers and onion with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and seasoned them with a sweet and sour sauce, while the confit tomatoes enhance the umami flavor. The arugula and radish sprouts add raw, spicy elements to the dish, and finally, the toasted pumpkin seeds add a crunchy, slightly bitter note.

This millet salad is a versatile recipe that can be adapted and modified, for example by replacing the millet with quinoa or couscous, or the chickpeas with lentils. Furthermore (technical description aside), it's very quick to prepare , practically in the same time it takes to cook the millet!
It's excellent as a single dish whether you're in the city, at the seaside, or in the mountains. It's suitable for a picnic or a refined lunch; you just need to adjust the "shape."
In short, very easy and tasty!

And remember, the most important ingredient in the kitchen is you! Let your inspiration guide you, and something delicious will surely come out if cooked with love!

• 200g of hulled millet
• 2 carrots (if possible 1 purple and 1 orange)
• 2 courgettes
• 1 red onion
• 2 sweet pointed peppers (yellow and red)
• 1/2 cucumber
• 1 handful of fresh arugula
• 2 handfuls of cooked chickpeas
• 2 tablespoons toasted pumpkin seeds
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Whole sea salt
• Fresh aromatic herbs
• 2 teaspoons of rice malt
• 1.5 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• Confit cherry tomatoes or alternatively raw datterino tomatoes

• Wash the millet well under running water, transfer to a pan and toast for a few minutes (1) .
• Cook by absorption with 2.5 volumes of boiling water and a pinch of salt for about 20 minutes (2) .
  

• Meanwhile, peel the cucumber, cut into cubes and marinate with a little umeboshi vinegar (3) .
• Clean the peppers, cut them into diamonds of a couple of centimetres (4) and cut the onion into slices (5) .

• In a large pan, sauté the peppers with extra virgin olive oil and salt, add the onions and another pinch of salt, then add the malt and vinegar. Continue cooking, allowing them to dry out a little but keeping the vegetables soft and still crunchy. Remove from the heat and transfer to a plate to cool (6) .

• In the same pan, heat some extra virgin olive oil. Cut the courgettes and carrots into cubes (7) , place them in the pan with a pinch of salt and a few sprigs of aromatic herbs (8) and sauté them (9) .

• If you have confit cherry tomatoes I recommend using those ( you can find my recipe here ), otherwise take a good handful of datterino tomatoes and cut them into 4.
• Once cooked, leave the millet covered for 5-10 minutes, then separate it into a large bowl (10) .
• Add the vegetables, chickpeas, squeezed cucumbers, rocket and seeds (11) and mix everything together (12) .
• And voilà... lunch is ready in record time! For an elegant plating, you can use a pastry cutter to "shape" your salad.