Body Strength: Healthy Tomatoes, Basil and Chickpea Salad

Healthy Tomatoes, Basil and Chickpea Salad – Vegan and Gluten-Free

We’re looking at this gorgeous tomatoes and chickpea salad and we’re all thinking the same.

What’s that carrot doing in there?

Well my sister made this light, refreshing and satisfying salad for lunch last week and may I say: it was amazing.

Perfect on its own as a lunch, also as a side and you can have it as dinner as well.

It’s vegan, gluten-free and loaded with antioxidants.

As with most recipes at Beauty Bites you can make this salad in almost no time. I know we all don't like to cook for hours when we’re hungry and busy.

This is just another way to use my all-time favorite combination of chickpeas, basil and tomatoes. Add some sesame seeds and lots of onions and you’ll be happy for the rest of the week.

Let's get back to the carrot story. We had a whole bag of carrots and we needed to use them asap or let them die moldy in a few days. And thus one of them was chopped brutally and made it into the salad. There – mystery of the carrot solved. If you don’t like the carrot in the salad – just leave it out.

There – mystery of the carrot solved. If you don’t like the carrot in the salad – just leave it out.

But be warned that carrots besides being good for your eyes and making your vision super clear also whiten your teeth when you chew them. And as if that wasn’t enough - because they contain lots of beta-carotene they give your skin a nice orange glow (you'd need to you eat a ton of them to develop a completely safe condition called carotenemia for that). Isn’t that the dream of the whole Jersey Shore cast?

The only other unusual ingredient beside that carrot are the nigella seeds in this precious salad.

I mean they make everything so pretty. And they taste awesome, although I needed some time to get used to them. It's like with cilantro - at first I didn't really like it, but once I started eating it, I'm mesmerized by its smell and want to put it in everything I make.

And they taste awesome, although I needed some time to get used to them. It's like with cilantro - at first I didn't really like it, but once I started eating it, I'm mesmerized by its smell and want to put it in everything I make.

In the past the only time I had nigella seeds was on flat bread. Warm delicious flat bread. Mmmm. Stop it.

I had no idea what those tiny black things were.

I thought it was dirt or just burnt sesame seeds that tasted weird.

Turns out they're nigella seeds aka black cumin. I did not like cumin as well.

People change, I'm telling you.

And just like cumin nigella seeds do have some extra health benefits.

A lot of them. I think it can even compete with my friend garlic in that.

Nigella is considered to be anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, antioxidant, protect against cancer and heart disease...but it's not a health food competition.

If you're interested in anti-inflammatory foods that will make you feel great and look beautiful, I've written a post about 5 other awesome anti-inflammatory foods that you can check out here.

5 anti-inflammatory foods you need to eat daily

Let’s take a look at the health and beauty benefits of this lovely salad.

Health and Beauty Benefits

As you can imagine this salad is not just great for your taste buds, it’s also super healthy because it’s bursting with carotenoids (thank you red pepper, tomatoes, and carrot!), vitamin C (all veggies), E (sesame oil, sesame seeds), detoxifying phytochemicals from onions, and thanks to sesame seeds – lots of calcium.

We need all these are nutrients during summer, because they protect us from the free radicals caused by higher sun exposure.

If we don’t stop them, those free radicals can do with us whatever they want (<- said in a very paranoid way). These free radicals cause wrinkles & skin cancer, make

These free radicals cause wrinkles & skin cancer, make us age with the speed of light and cause various health issues (to say the least) like cancer and cardiovascular diseases.

This salad will boost your immune system, prevent inflammation and alkalize your body.

For some more information about the health benefits of this salad, check out this article about 29 health benefits of tomatoes (the shining red stars in this salad) - this article is full of valuable information and will make you crave tomatoes like never before.