Zucchini and Chickpea Salad with Tahini Yogurt

This is our re-creation of a salad we loved at Coal Office, a restaurant in London that serves up modern Middle Eastern food. With raw zucchini, earthy chickpeas, nutty tahini and creamy yogurt, the dish is both fresh and hearty, light and rich. Za’atar, which seasons the chickpeas, is a dried herb and seed blend; look for it in the spice section of the supermarket, in specialty spice shops or in Middle Eastern grocery stores. If you’re shopping for za’atar, also look for sumac, the dried ground berries of the sumac bush. Its tart flavor and deep-red hue are a nice, though optional, accent for the salad. For eye-catching presentation, we spoon the yogurt mixture in the center of a serving platter, then surround it with the zucchini-chickpea mix. To serve, spoon some of the salad along with a bit of the yogurt onto each plate.