Chickpea Salad
This beautiful Chickpea Salad combines all of my favorite fresh vegetables in one delicious bite. Chickpeas are combined with juicy tomatoes, refreshing cucumbers and creamy avocados all tossed in an easy homemade lemon kissed dressing. This is the perfect make ahead dish as this salad keeps for days!
How to Make Chickpea Salad
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How can you create a salad that packs a protein punch without adding meat? One of the best ways is to include chickpeas! Chickpea Salad is such a delicious and nutritious way to enjoy fresh summer veggies and is perfect to make ahead and enjoy for lunch!
I love fresh summery salads filled with a huge variety of produce and this recipe contains so many wonderful, fresh ingredients! Refreshing cucumbers, juicy diced tomatoes, crisp bell peppers and smooth creamy avocados are the perfect complement to chickpeas! Not only is the combination of colors and textures beautiful, it is loaded with flavor for a totally irresistible meal ready in just minutes.
When choosing an avocado, it should be ripe enough to be a little bit soft you squeeze it, but not too soft. If the skin looks dry or overly wrinkled, it will likely be too ripe. Cut the avocado lengthwise and twist to separate the halves. The flesh should have a light green, even color (brown spots mean it’s a bit overripe). Once the seed is removed, I cut the flesh into squares right in the skin and then use a spoon to easily scoop them out into a bowl.
As soon as you add the avocado to the bowl, squeeze fresh lemon over it, this not only adds flavor to the salad, it keeps avocado from turning brown. I always love using fresh lemon in my recipes, however you can use bottled lemon juice if that is all you have on hand (you’ll need about 1 tablespoon).
In this fresh salad you’ll really want to use fresh parsley and if you substitute dried parsley I think you might be disappointed. The fresh parsley just adds so much flavor to this recipe, it’s fairly inexpensive and it can last up to two weeks in the fridge if it’s stored properly. Find great tips for storing fresh herbs here!
For the dressing in this recipe, I combine all of the liquid ingredients in a mason jar and give it a shake. You can use as much or as little as you’d like and the leftovers will keep at least 1 week to drizzle over salads or even grilled veggies!
There are many options for olive oil; extra virgin, virgin, pure/light, extra light. Extra virgin is considered the least processed and most flavorful, while extra light is the most processed and has a much lighter flavor (and isn’t lighter in fat). So your personal taste and nutritional desires will dictate which one you choose. I prefer virgin olive oil for many of my recipes because it is not too overpowering.
This recipe is so versatile, you can substitute your favorite vegetables; red pepper for green pepper, white or green onion for red onion. Adding feta cheese makes a nice variation, but since feta is quite salty itself be careful when you add the seasonings. (And for those of you asking, Chickpeas are the same as garbanzo beans and can be used interchangeably in this recipe.
Once all your ingredients are assembled, simply toss everything together and that’s it! This salad will last for about 4 days in the refrigerator (even the avocado holds up well). Great to make ahead of time for your next event, or just to eat for leftovers!
Chick Pea Salad is a complete meal that is low in fat, high in protein and incredibly delicious! A super power salad that is so satisfying, and …fun!
Chickpea Salad
This beautiful Chickpea Salad combines all of my favorite fresh vegetables in one delicious bite. Chickpeas are combined with juicy tomatoes, refreshing cucumbers and creamy avocados all tossed in an easy homemade lemon kissed dressing.
Ingredients:
- 1 avocado
- 1/2 fresh lemon
- 1 can chickpeas , drained (19 oz)
- 1/4 cup sliced red onion
- 2 cups grape tomatoes , sliced
- 2 cups diced cucumber
- 1/2 cup fresh parsley
- 3/4 cup diced green bell pepper
Dressing
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin
- salt & pepper
Directions:
- Cut avocado into cubes and place in bowl. Squeeze the juice from 1/2 lemon over the avocado and gently stir to combine.
- Add remaining salad ingredients and gently toss to combine.
- Refrigerate at least one hour before serving.
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Holly Nilsson
Holly is a wine and cheese lover, recipe creator, shopping enthusiast and self appointed foodie. Her greatest passion is creating in the kitchen and making deliciously comforting recipes for the everyday home cook!
This is my perfect salad! I’d eat it every day!
It’s easy to eat every day!
YUM!!! This salad looks so fresh and full of great flavors! Thank you for sharing :)
Fresh and delicious! Enjoy! :)
The picture looks so colorful and looks too delicious. I’ll try it for sure. Thanks for sharing it.
Hope you love it!
This looks delicious!
This looks crazy refreshing!
This is one of my go to summer recipes that I have been making for decades. Love the addition of an avocado.
This looks so good wondering what you could use instead of cumin?
Carroway seeds, chili powder, taco season or curry would be good substitutions for cumin.
Looks yummy. What if I don’t want to use canned chickpeas. How would I prepare dry chickpeas?
If you choose to use dry, refer to the package for cooking directions.
What is a serving size?
Serving size would be about 1 cup.
I would definitely recommend cutting the parsley in half. It’s too overbearing. I think this could’ve used a bit more flavor. It was just ok for me.
This looks so good I’m ready to make it right now! I have all the ingredients at hand except for the avocado. Do you think I could use guacamole instead or should I just leave it out?
I would just leave it out. You could add a dollop of guacamole to your serving if you’d like.
I Love all your Recipes, Thank you Soo much !
It looks fabulous, can’t wait to try it !!
What I would LOVE to know is the NUTRITIONAL CONTENT of the chickpea salad!!
I’m sorry I am unable to provide nutritional information. You can enter your ingredients here to calculate your information.
I worked out the nutrition info in order to use it for my Weight Watcher’s tracking – if you use all the dressing and divide the salad into 8 servings (1cup/serving), it is 6 WW Smart Points. If you add feta cheese, that would be additional points.
This was a great salad and easy to make. I had to improvise with orange pepper, vadilla onion but other then that it was great.
I will make it again. We love chick/garbanzo beans, it is healthy filling and even my great grandson liked it. Thanks
I am so glad you were able to make it work with what you had on hand!
I made this salad and it was gone, eaten in one sitting by just my boyfriend and I. He was literally tilting the bowl and drinking the juice that was left on the bottom! I would highly recommend substituting the parsley with cilantro as it compliments the cumin. That’s if you like cilantro. Thank you for the wonderful and healthy recipe!
I am so glad you guys liked this recipe! I will have to try it with cilantro sometime!
Do you put the dressing on ahead of time and refrigerate the salad? Or, do you just pour the dressing onto individual portions?
I toss the dressing with the salad before refrigerating.
Can I make this a night before or better made day of?
Absolutely! This recipe keeps for a days!
This looks so good! Perfect for hot summer days.
Made this last night. it was fresh and delicious. I will be making this often. I love that you can add whatever you have available. Had feta, great add in. Thanks
I am glad this was a hit! I think adding feta is a great idea!
This salad is so so good! The parsley is off putting in this salad so I think next time I will replace with cilantro, which would also complement the cumin and avocado. Others’ suggestion of adding feta would also be amazing in this. Thanks for the great recipe!
Regarding your chickpea salad, you say the salad dressing is kissed with lemon yet there is no lemon in the salad dressing ingredients. Is it supposed to come from the 1/2 lemon juice that is squeezed over the avocado? I’ll be making this today, it looks fantastic.
It does come from adding it in with the avocado. Enjoy Kristen!
My husband loved it.
This salad looks good and delicious, the salad dressing so perfect with all available ingredients!! Thank you!
Enjoy Aria!
Good delicious! I growing chickpeas in my garde.
Just finished making this for a party tomorrow. I tasted prior to chilling it’s fabulous! I omitted green pepper and added feta, used parsley straight from the garden!
After reading these salad recipes I want to try the benr …
Just made this tonight and my family loved it! This is definitely one of my favourite salads with awesomeness of goodness.
I made this Sunday for a family reunion. It was incredible! But I have some meat-and-potatoes people in my family, and one family member stated that, “Becky sure eats some weird stuff.” Haha! His loss!!
Too funny! We agree, it’s his loss! :P
This salad was crazy good!
I’m so glad you loved it!
So good!! My daughter and I made this tonight and we both really liked it a lot. Will definitely be making this again. Thank you for sharing.
So glad you loved it!
Very light, lots of flavor. easy to make
Chickpea and avocado is the best combo! Gonna make this for my vegan mom <3
I followed this recipe to a ‘T’ and it was excellent! Thanks for sharing!
So glad you liked it!