Spicy Buffalo Chickpea Salad

To make the chickpeas, preheat oven to 400 degrees and place the oven rack to the upper third position. Place chickpeas on a large, rimmed baking sheet, add 2 tablespoons hot wing sauce and 2 tablespoons oil. Using your hands, toss them together so all of the chickpeas are coated. Bake for 15 minutes, then pull a chickpea out to taste. If you’d like them spicier, toss in an additional tablespoon (or two) of hot wing sauce and return to the oven for an additional 15 minutes. Even if you don’t add more sauce, they still need to bake for another 15 minutes or so until they’re slightly crisp on the outside, but soft on the inside. When they’re finished baking, let them cool off, then transfer to a serving bowl.

To make the dressing, put all dressing ingredients except oil into a small bowl and whisk to combine. While continuing to whisk, add the oil in a small, continuous stream. Dressing should thicken slightly as it combines.

At this point, you can place all of the ingredients in separate bowls for guests to build their own salads or toss the greens, dressing, cucumbers, and avocados together, then sprinkle the goat cheese and some of the chickpeas on top.

Makes 8 side-dish or 4 main-dish servings.

Note: Blue cheese dressing is traditionally served with hot wings and “buffalo” type dishes, but because of our family’s preferences, we opted for goat cheese.