Summer Chickpea Salad a la Jamie O

There comes a time in the Greek calendar when excess is out and getting trim again is in and all the magazines, TV ads are spurring a whole load of interesting 'lose weight' diet plans including tea bags which will apparently make you lose weight.
This week (and it's only Tuesday) I've heard the word 'Diaita' or 'diet' whispered so many times, it's becoming the thing you 'must' do and start now. Hitting the beach o'clock is not far off so i can understand the craze at the moment.
Diet is such a dirty word, i just don't believe in it, so I just eat according to what makes me feel good with the occasional 'excess' of sweet candy and cake love. Ok, admittedly since i've been living here it's been a bit of an occupational hazard of mine to try out new chocolates, new flavours and well much more... But detoxing is pretty good for you though and once a year i like to get rid of the yucky toxins in my body by eating more healthily & cutting out certain types of food (be it meat and sugary snacks etc) - I'm just not really one for juices, or liquid diets! I'd probably fall flat on my face after day 2 of juicing or whatever! And don't get me started on leafy salads - ugh! I love a salad like anyone else but just not the plain boring leafy type - it's all about variety for me!

So anyhoos, here's something that's yummy and fulfilling from Jamie Oliver's book 'Jamie's Dinner's'.

"This salad is a great one for making up as you go along; you can use different spices, sun-dried tomatoes and spicy chorizo sausages, for instance."
Starters - feeds 4 hungry peeps
What you need:

• 1 small red onion, peeled
• 1–2 fresh red chillies, deseeded
• 2 handfuls of ripe red or yellow tomatoes
• 2 lemons
extra virgin olive oil
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 x 410g jar or tin of chickpeas, drained, or around 4 large handfuls of soaked and cooked chickpeas - I find that if you soak and drain your own it tastes way better than the tinned stuff!
• a handful of fresh mint, chopped
a handful of fresh green or purple basil, finely ripped
• 200g/7oz feta cheese

Make it!

First of all, finely slice your red onion. Once that's done, finely slice your chillies then roughly chop your tomatoes, mixing them in with the onion and chillies. Scrape all of this, and the juice, into a bowl and dress with the juice of 1½ lemons and about 3 times as much good extra virgin olive oil. Season to taste. Heat the chickpeas in a pan, then add 90 per cent of them to the bowl. Mush up the remaining chickpeas and add these as well – they will give a nice creamy consistency. Allow to marinate for a little while and serve at room temperature.

Just as you're ready to serve, give the salad a final dress with the fresh mint and basil. Taste one last time for seasoning – you may want to add the juice from your remaining lemon half at this point. Place on a nice serving dish and crumble over the feta cheese.