Sauteed Squid and Chorizo Salad with Garlic, Rocket, Tomatoes and Chickpeas

We have been kicking around the idea of adopting a more Mediterranean diet lately. It's more of a lifestyle shift than anything, with a focus on fresh vegetables and fruits, pastas, olive oil, etc. Most of the protein comes from fish and poultry rather than red meat. Don't worry, we'll still throw down a steak every now and again, but access to fish and poultry is pretty easy around here. Anyhow, there's a chef here who is somewhat of a TV chef, but also has a few seafood restaurants in Cornwall, in the southwest of England. Anyhow, this is from his cookbook 'Mediterranean Escapes' and the man is Rick Stein. The recipe turned out lovely. I added a bit of lemon zest, too, to lift the dish a little.



225 g chickpeas, drained, or 100g dried chickpeas soaked overnight and drained
300 g squid, or cuttlefish, prepared
8 cherry tomatoes, quartered
1-½ tablespoon lemon juice
Zest of one lemon
6 tablespoons olive oil
1 red chili, medium-hot, seeded, thinly sliced
2 garlic, cloves, finely chopped
10 g flat-leaf parsley, chopped
50 g chorizo picante, cut into thin slices
20 g rocket
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper


Drain the chickpeas, put them in a pan and cover with fresh water. Bring to the boil and simmer until the skins begin to crack and they are tender - about 40 minutes - adding one teaspoon of salt to the pan 5 minutes before the end of the cooking time. Drain and leave to cool.

Cut the body pouch of each squid open along one side and score the inner side with the tip of a small, sharp knife into a fine diamond pattern. The cut each pouch lengthways in half, then across into 3-inch pieces.

Stir the tomatoes into the chickpeas with the lemon juice, 4 tablespoons of the olive oil, the chili, garlic, parsley, some of the lemon zest and some salt and pepper to taste.

Heat 1 tablespoon of the remaining olive oil in a large frying pan over a high heat. Add half the squid pieces, scored side facing upwards (this will make them curl attractively), and half the tentacles and sear for 30 seconds, then turn over and sear for 30 more seconds until golden brown and caramelized. Season with salt and pepper and remove from the pan. Repeat with the remaining tablespoon of olive oil and the remaining squid. Return all of the squid to the pan with the chorizo and toss together over high heat for a further minute.

Briefly toss the rocket (arugula) leaves through the chickpea salad and spoon into 1 large or 4 individual plates. Top with the sauteed squid and chorizo and serve.

NOTE: You'll want to use a Spanish-style dry cured chorizo as the Mexican-style chorizo is raw pork which would need to be cooked longer.