There's a new butcher shop in town. The owners of the popular middle eastern restaurant chain Paramount Fine Foods recently opened Paramount Butcher Shop in Toronto. Located at Yonge and Eglinton, the Lebanese meat market features a variety of fresh meats, deli and ready-made food, as well as traditional Middle Eastern fare. All meats are raised and butchered using the traditional Halal guidelines, which according to founder and CEO Mohamad Fakih means "animals be fed an all-natural diet and raised in a humane fashion."
My recent trip to Paramount Butcher Shop inspired me to try and attempt to cook middle eastern foods, which I have little experience cooking. Luckily, there are several pre-marinated cuts of meat and kabobs to choose from. I opted chicken kabobs and after seeing the salt room where large cuts of meat are aged and cured, I decided to splurge on some ribeye steaks.
The night we made the chicken kabobs I decided to make a chickpea salad with it.
Ingredients
2 540mL cans of chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1 pint of grape tomatoes (I like to cut some of them in half)
1 English cucumber, diced
2 shallots, diced
1/4 cup of feta cheese
1/4 cup of mint leaves, chopped
For the dressing:
1 lemon, juiced
1 tbsp. lemon zest
1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
Combine chickpeas, tomatoes, cucumber, shallots, feta and mint leaves
Whisk together lemon juice, zest, olive oil, salt and pepper and pour over chickpea mixture
