ok the herby chickpea and courgette situation

So I had two courgettes and absolutely no plan. Classic. Ended up doing this thing where I slice them dead thin on a mandoline — like almost translucent — and just let them sit with a bit of lemon juice and salt while I sort everything else out. They go a bit silky. It's genuinely good and I wasn't expecting it. Basically it's this: 2 courgettes, shaved thin 1 tin chickpeas, drained and patted dry (don't skip the patting, they absorb the dressing so much better) Handful of fresh mint, handful of flat leaf parsley, roughly torn Half a red onion, sliced thin and left in cold water for 10 mins if you can be bothered — takes the sharpness out Toasted pine nuts if you have them, or pumpkin seeds work fine Dressing: lemon juice, good olive oil, a tiny bit of cumin, salt, and I added a pinch of chaat masala which I'm pretty sure made the whole thing The chaat masala is doing a lot of heavy lifting here tbh. It's got that sour-salty thing going on and honestly just lifts the whole bowl. My mum would probably say it doesn't belong in a salad like this but here we are. I added about 25g of vanilla vegan protein stirred into a bit of oat yogurt on the side, basically as a dip/dressing situation, because I'd just come back from yoga and was starving. That part is optional but it did make it more of a proper meal rather than just a side. Chai sat next to me the entire time I was eating it with the saddest eyes. She's not getting chickpeas, she knows this, and yet.