Potato, Chickpea and Asparagus Salad

I never considered myself to be a creative person. Creative were the others. The painters, the musicians, the crafters. The people who knew what they were doing. Who can take a pencil into their hands and just start drawing and produce a wonderful drawing. The people who constantly took beautiful pictures with their cameras. I always looked at their work and said to myself: Oh well, your just not the creative type. They just have talent.

Only recently I realized that creativity is not the same as talent (and talent is a concept I try to distance myself from) and expertise. Being creative is the process, not the outcome. No matter how the end result turns out, the mere act of creating something makes us creative people. And John Cleese shares this view, that creativity is not an ability but a process. If you happen to have time, please watch this video. It is really worth your time.

And it really is good to know that we all are creative beings.

It is in cooking that I often feel my creativity the most. I usually sit and read and write and type the whole day or spend it with friends or maybe on the bike, but don't spend it creating stuff. Creating something in the kitchen is when I feel really connected, to the food I make but also to life in general. Cooking is really grounding to me.

For this weeks recipe in the Food Matters Project, I really planned on making a soup, maybe adding a bit more garlic, pureeing the bean part and leaving the asparagus whole. But then summer came, it is really pleasant outside, I wear a dress, drink beer and just can't imagine eating hot soup right now. And turning it into a cold soup did not sound too great. So here I am today, with a version of the dish that is more suited to the temperatures right now.



Potato, Chickpea and Asparagus Salad
Recipe adapted from Mark Bittman, The Food Matters Cookbook, check out the original recipe here.

1 potato
1/4 pound asparagus, the thin spears work better here, you don't have to peel them
1 tsp olive oil
1 handful chickpeas, cooked (for myself, I just take a handful dried chickpeas, soak them over night and then cook them in the morning. This makes about enough for one person)

dressing:
leek (about 2 cm of the light green part)
4 tsp lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Wash the potato and the asparagus, peel the potato and cut it into wedges that are not a lot bigger than the asparagus. You want them to need about the same amount of time in the oven.  Cut off the ends of the asparagus, I found that I needed to cut away about 2 cm at least.
Place them together with the potato wedges in an oven proof baking dish, and brush them with the olive oil. I found one teaspoon was enough for the one potato and the asparagus. Sprinkle with salt and roast in the oven for about 30 minutes or until the potato is cooked through.

In the meantime, make the dressing. I made it using mortar and pestle, but using a food processor might work, too. I only make a small amount, though. Grind the leeks with a pinch of salt until they become soft. Add the lemon juice and pepper, 1 or 2 turns with the pepper mill.

Let the potato and asparagus cool down a bit, then add them together with the chickpeas to a bowl, drizzle with the dressing and eat. You might want to add a bit more lemon juice.

Serves 1.