Roasted tomatoes with feta and chickpeas salad

This past week my grocery store had an amazing sale: 1 pint of grape tomatoes for 97 cents. That's pretty much unheard of.

And yes, of course, these tomatoes weren't nearly as good as the ones you'd find at a farmers' market, but I love tomatoes and bought 6 pints and was excited about all the possible ways of cooking/eating them.

In the end, I used some tomatoes in a corn/tomato/avocado salad, and the other ones I roasted.

Roasting tomatoes brings out their natural sweetness. You can roast tomatoes for a long time at a low temperature or roast them at a high temperature for a shorter amount of time.

Given that I'm not a very patient person and that I was making this dish at 8 pm on a Saturday, I opted for the second method: 425F for 40 minutes.

This Roasted tomatoes with feta and chickpea dish can be served warm, at room temperature or cold. It's a great side dish or a salad. Add some grilled chicken or poached salmon, and you'll have your entire meal.

I really hope you make this soon. Why not even take it on a picnic with you this Labor Day Weekend?

Roasted tomatoes with feta and chickpea salad

Ingredients
4 pints grape tomatoes (1 pint = 2 cups), pierced {thanks to Jael for this tip}
olive oil to drizzle
salt & pepper
4 garlic cloves, unpeeled
10 thyme sprigs
1 pound can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1/3 to 1/2 crumbled feta
arugula

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 425F. Line a large cookie sheet with aluminum foil.
2. Mix pierced tomatoes with olive oil, salt & pepper, garlic cloves and thyme. Arrange in one layer on a cookie sheet and roast for about 40 minutes.

3. In a bowl combine chickpeas and feta.
4. Remove thyme sprigs from the roasted tomatoes. Crumble the thyme leaves into the bowl with chickpeas and feta. Squeeze out roasted garlic cloves.
5. Add roasted tomatoes with their juices. Mix.
6. Adjust for salt & pepper if necessary and add a bit more olive oil if you wish.
7. Serve over a bed of arugula.

I've had this dish for dinner, breakfast and lunch. I don't think I can get tired of it. Not only is it colorful, pretty healthy and easy to make, but it's pretty satisfying and has so many different flavors: the sweetness of roasted tomatoes, the slight bitterness of arugula and the saltiness of feta. What's not to like?

Have you roasted tomatoes? If so, do you use the slow/low method or the high/fast method? What do you then do with them?