Miso-Garbanzo Salad

I go crazy over cookouts. No, really. I get really obsessive over cooking the right things or bringing the most memorable things to the party. There’s some weird part of my brain that hungrily feeds off of the praise of strangers (or even friends) when it comes to the preparation of food. I’m a junkie for it. I have to be the one with the most interesting thing at the potluck. It’s a point of honor or something. It might explain why I spent so long working in hospitality. It probably explains a lot of fucked up things about me.

My neurosis aside, there’s nothing I love more than preparing sides (see what I did there?) for a potluck, holiday gathering, or especially a summer cookout. This one definitely fits the later and does a great job of bringing something not entirely boring to the upcoming summer feasts in the back yard.

There are some caveats to this side, mainly in what kind of ingredients you use and how much of each you use. Let this be yet another reminder that most of the measurements that I use here are approximations. I rarely measure out things like miso or sugar (like in this recipe) with anything other than the basic teaspoon I have in the drawer. Most of what I do here comes from years of amature experience, the same way most of us learn to be at least somewhat competent in the kitchen, by trial and error. Just remember the golden rule of cooking: it’s far easier to put more in than to take some out.

So here are some pro tips for this recipe:

• Use red onion. Most things can be subbed out here, but the red onion is what makes this dish pop.
• The hierarchy of strength for miso paste goes red, yellow, white, with red having the strongest flavor. I used yellow in this and it would have been great with red too. White might be too subtle as the ginger paste can overpower the delicate miso a bit.
• If you can’t find ginger paste, use a microplane to grate some fresh ginger. Again, be warned that you can put too much in this way and it might be best to add it to the water/vinegar mix a bit at a time.
• Use an immersion blender (or something similar) to combine the miso, vinegar, water, ginger, and sugar. It incorporates everything far better than just mixing it by hand.
• Make sure you dice your produce to a size at least a bit smaller than the garbanzo beans. And obviously you can use any color bell pepper for this. I just like using red or orange for the color pop they bring.
• You can definitely try variations on this. Add some serrano peppers for some spice. Use lemon instead of vinegar if you have it. Finely dice up some mushrooms and add to the mix. Add some kind of protein and use it for small plates night. The world is your oyster.
• This recipe, as it stands, was good for me to eat this as a side at least 3 or 4 times in the course of a week. So it should be good for two people at least twice in a week. Obviously double or triple it if you’re bringing it to a party.
• As with most salad-type things like this, the flavor gets better if you let it sit in the fridge for at least a few hours before serving.