Chickpea and spinach salad

A friend gave me a link to this recipe from the blog Joy the Baker. It looked like everything a good vegetarian recipe should be: flavorful, hearty, colorful and fresh. I didn't have some of the ingredients and don't particularly care for others, so here's my somewhat modified version. 
 

Chickpea and Spinach Salad 

Ingredients (for a large salad): 

- 2  (15 oz, 425 gram) cans of chickpeas or an equivalent quantity of prepared chickpeas. (The exact quantity is not that important, but you want to have a large amount of chickpeas)

- 1/4 red onion, finely diced 

- 1/2 to 1 whole jalapeno pepper or other hot pepper, finely diced (if you don't like heat, deseed it) 

- Juice from 1/2 lemon 

- 1/3 cup almonds or cashews, browned on a hot pan or roasted in the oven 

- 1 large ripe tomato, diced 

- 2-3 large handfuls of fresh spinach or baby spinach leaves 

For the dressing: 

 - 2 cloves of garlic, minced 

- 1/2 tsp sea salt 

- 1 tsp honey (or agave or silan for a vegan version) 

- 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

- 1/4 cup of olive oil 

- 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes 

- salt and pepper, to taste

Preparation: 

Make the dressing: 

1. In a medium bowl mash the garlic and salt together with a fork to create a paste. 

2. Add the honey, vinegar and pepper flakes and combine with the fork. Slowly add the olive oil while whisking with the fork, to create an emulsified sauce (it will turn slightly "milky" and less clear). 

Set aside. 

Make the Salad: 

1. In a large bowl combine all of the salad ingredients except the spinach. 

2. Pour the dressing over the salad and mix well. Taste and season with salt/pepper as needed. 

3. Just before serving, add the spinach leaves and mix well. 

Note:

The salad can be kept in the fridge for a day or two, but the spinach will begin to be somewhat wilted very soon after "meeting" the sauce. It will still taste good,  but won't look as fresh and crisp. So if you want to serve this to guests, only add the spinach at the last minute.