by Holly
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 easy salad recipe makes a perfect side dish for burgers or steaks or turn it into a complete meal by adding in grilled chicken breasts!
A Protein Packed Salad
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.
How to Make a Chickpea Salad
Chickpeas are the same as garbanzo beans and can be used interchangeably in this recipe.
Avocado: Choose an avocado that is ripe (a little bit soft but not too soft). Once the seed is removed, cut the flesh into squares right in the skin and then use a spoon to easily scoop them out into a bowl. Squeeze fresh lemon juice over it, this not only adds flavor to the salad, it keeps avocado from turning brown.
Fresh Herbs: In this chickpea salad you’ll really want to use fresh parsley (dry parsley doesn’t have the same flavor for this salad). You can substitute cilantro or dill if you’d prefer.
Veggies: Chop your veggies into bite sized pieces and toss with the dressing. This will last days in the fridge making for a great lunch dish! If you’re making this ahead of time, you might list to leave the avocado out and add it just before serving!
Chickpea Salad Dressing
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 tossed salad or even grilled veggies!
Olive Oil: 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. Vegetable oil or avocado oil will also work in this recipe!
Swap Out the Veggies
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 start with less salt when you add the seasonings.
Chickpea 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!
More Easy Salads
- Easy Panzanella Salad – Classic Italian tomato & bread salad
- Favorite Spaghetti Salad – Potluck favorite!
- Cucumber Onion Salad – Easy and delicious
- Greek Salad – Family favorite (without lettuce)
- Ramen Noodle Salad – Quick prep!
Chickpea Salad
Prep Time 10 minutes
Servings 6 servings
Course Salad
Cuisine AmericanIngredients
- 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
Instructions
- 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.
Nutrition Information
Love it! Easy to make, especially if you’re like me running late for work need something to quickly whip up for lunch.
Thank you
So good!!!!!!!
I wanna see more recipes like this, cold non cooking raw recipes!
I am looking forward to making this for a family get together! Has anyone tried using balsamic vinegar instead of red wine? Holly, I would like your opinion on this as well.
I haven’t tried balsamic but I think it would go well with the other flavors in this recipe. It can be a bit stronger than red wine vinegar so perhaps start with a bit less, taste and add more as needed. Enjoy!
Thanks for your feedback!
Love this salad. Am currently (1) recovering from foot surgery and fending off inactivity weight gain and (2) undergoing a kitchen renovation so need simple recipes that can be assembled on a makeshift surface. This salad has been a staple for the past week. Easy to make, flavorful, healthy, filling because it’s packed with water, fiber, healthy fat, and bean protein. Simply wonderful.
Excellent…so fresh tasting and good for you!
Sounds healthy and good! I’ll comment after I try some recipes.
YUM! I love this salad. I bring it to church potlucks and it’s always gone, sometimes before I even get any.
Sound great. Will. Try it will meat balls on tomatoe sauce
Great idea Lorraine.
Hi, I’d like to try making this recipe for my prep-meal for the week. What I want to ask is, how should I store it in the fridge, with dressing or without it? What if I want to put feta cheese, should I toss it and store it together with the veggies? And what if I also put quinoa?
If you’re planning to keep it for the week, I’d suggest that you add the dressing each day to keep the salad as fresh as possible. I’d suggest adding the feta to the top, but mixing in quinoa ahead should work just fine. Enjoy Sweetta!
Holly, thank you for a simple and delicious recipe. My teenage daughters, and especially my husband loved the Chickpea Salad. My husband said, “This recipe is a keeper!” I will put it in my rapporteur of recipes, and will be making it soon.
I followed the recipe exact, but used cilantro instead of parsley.
I am so glad your family enjoyed this salad Lisa!
I made this recipe for my mom and I, we both think it’s incredible! Thank you for the recipe!
That’s awesome Savannah. So happy you both loved it!
Thanks for your recipe!
You’re welcome Hien!
Hi Holly! Thanks for the great recipe! What you would recommend as a serving size of this for lunch?
Hi Marissa, our nutritional information is calculated with a serving size of ~1.5 cups.
I need to eat more veggies, this is a way to start.i love salad.
This is a great way to start Gwendolyn! Enjoy.
Thank you for healthy recipes!!!
So glad we could help Jan! Thank you for stopping by.
Hi Holly,
Is there a button where you can change the serving size from 6 servings to 4?
Thanks,
Renee
Hi Renee, sorry we don’t have a button to convert servings on our website.
Good salad
Thank you Gloria!
This salad is delicious!! I love it with the cilantro in it!! The cumin is not overpowering at all. Great mixture of flavor!!
I am so glad that you enjoyed the salad Melinda!
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This salad sounds and looks delicious…I am not a fan of cumin..is there something else I might use ?
You could use caraway seeds, chili powder, taco seasoning or curry in place of cumin Merny. They will change the flavor slightly, but still taste delicious!
I made the salad for a small dinner party. It was a good choice as I was able to prep the night before and toss right before dinner. The salad looked beautiful! I used zucchini, which I grilled, instead of the cucumber. The zucchini was sweet and tender so it was a good switch. Overall I felt that the salad was a bit bland. I omitted the onion and cumin as my guests do not like onion and I do not like cumin. I am sure the flavor would have been different with the onion. I will definitely make it again but I will add the onion and maybe fresh cilantro. My guests loved the salad.
I’m glad your guests loved the salad, zucchini is a fun twist! As cumin is the only spice, this would change the flavor and perhaps make it more bland.
Super easy to make and to improvise. My husband is not entirely on board with chickpeas so I made it without and then prepped my bowls, adding spoonfuls of chickpeas for me! Put it all on a bed of baby kale. YUM!
Great idea Laura! Glad you were able to both enjoy it.
I have made this several times and love it- as do my friends! Is the 238 calories for one serving? One serving being about a cup? MyFitness Pal is a stickler when you enter in the information
Yes Kimberly, that should be a cup per serving. I am so gladthis recipe was well received with your friends!
I love this salad! The only thing I do differently is, instead of the parsley, I use cilantro. If you like cilantro, it gives the salad a nice bright flavour.
Delicious idea!! So glad you loved it Charlene!
Love all the recipes of yours that I have tried and thank you for sharing your recipes. I just love this chickpea salad, very healthy and so easy and quick to make and very tasty.
Thank you so much Marian!
Sounds wonderful! Except for the cucumbers, onions and green pepper. Allergic to these foods!
Thanks Barbara, maybe you can substitute the ingredients you are allergic to with ones you prefer!
Tried it with some Italian dressing and I’m in love. My new go to lunch.
We love it for lunch too.
I made this salad to take to a BBQ cookout. I tried some b4 taking and it is delicious. Next time I will use cilantro.
Hi! I am wondering if you’ve ever tried Cilantro instead of Parsley in this.. I LOVE me some cilantro.
I haven’t tried it with cilantro (yet!), but many readers have and LOVE it! Let us know if you try it Holly!
This looks delicious, and I hate to be a stickler, but can I just point out that almost everything in this list of ingredients is a fruit, not a vegetable? Avocado is a fruit. Lemon is fruit. Tomatoes and cucumbers are also fruit. Bell peppers, while erroneously referred to as vegetables from a culinary standpoint, are also fruit.
hi holly
could I use avacodo oil rather than olive oil, I’m looking forward to trying this recipe. It looks delicious and easy.
I think that would work perfectly! Enjoy Donna!
Holly – thank you very much for this recipe, fantastic! I sauted the bell pepper in my pressure cooker then added my soaked chickpeas with a bay leaf and pressure cooked them. I followed the recipe using cherry tomatoes and cucumbers from my garden. So good!
So glad you loved the salad Greg!
If I was to make this with dried chickpeas, how many grams would I need ? I love the look of this recipe and am going to be making it for my lunches at work.
Taylor, you’ll want to check your package of chickpeas and prepare enough to end up with between 2 and 2 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas for this recipe. It does make a great lunch!
Hi Taylor, I use dry chickpeas exclusively, cook 1 cup of dry chickpeas with your preferred method (I use a stove top pressure cooker), that will result in easily 2 to 2 1/2 cups cooked. Drain them and allow to cool, use as directed in the recipe. Happy cooking and great to see another person using dried beans :)
Thanks for the tip Lee!
This salad is really good! Most of the ingredients were either already in my kitchen, or already on my grocery list. At the advice of other reviewers, I swapped the parsley out for cilantro. That’s the only change I made. It keeps in the fridge really well too. I put in a pita with romaine lettuce and feta…WOW!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it April!
What is the serving size? The nutrition facts are useless without a server a size.
Also I feel like 220 calories for a bunch of vegetables is quite high.
This salad makes 6 servings. While this does have a lot of vegetables, the chickpeas, avocado and olive oil all have higher calories than the other vegetables included in this recipe.
Is the serving size 1 cup?
It can vary slightly depending on the size of your veggies but yes, it’s about 1 cup
What vegetables can I substitute for cucumbers? I can’t eat them. I love chickpeas and the salad sounds delicious except for the cukes.
You can leave them out or perhaps try zucchini? Enjoy!!
Made this this afternoon to go with grilled ribs tonight. DEEEEELISH! Added some crumbled feta cheese as well because I LOVE feta. Would be so easy to switch to a Latin flavored salad: sub black beans for the chick peas, lime juice for the lemon and cilantro for the parsley then may had some crumbled queso fresco. So glad I came across this on Facebook today <3
Yay, so glad you loved it! Love your suggestions too!
Wow! This salad is very flavorful!!! So delicious and healthy. I added cilantro, garlic, corn and feta cheese to ours, just because we had it handy. This recipe is very forgiving. Thank you Holly for sharing your versatile salad as I will be making it regularly this summer.
I’m so glad you loved it Sue! Great additions!!
I love your recipies, I will weigh 600 pounds by the time I try all of them. And I really don’t like pepole who change other people’s recipies, it just doesn’t seem right, but would I be forgiven if I leave out the avacado? I just never took a liking to it. I love chickpeas and I think with all the other ingredients it would still taste ok.
Yes, definitely! :) Enjoy!
I do not like avocado but I use lime juice and sea salt with it and love it ! Try making guacamole and you will be amazed ho w lovely it tastes
Sounds great!
This salad was absolutely fantastic! Made it with cilantro.
Love cilantro! Glad you loved it Crystal!
I just made this yesterday! It was really good and will be a regular on my menu!!
5 stars ⭐️ ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I’m so glad you loved it Kristy!
I made this but I added feta cheese and I use seven sea’s dressing mix instead of oil and red wine viniger.
Sounds delicious! So glad you loved it Deborah!
Made a pound of chickpeas in the slow cooker and I was looking for a recipe that used chickpeas. This recipe is awesome. Tastes great and easy to make.
Glad you loved it!
Really delicious salad with the addition of cilantro. Next time I’ll use white wine vinegar as the red wine vinegar gave it a unappetizing look. Very tasty however!
This recipe was perfect. My huband and I loved it. Very tasty.
So glad you loved it!
This will be my “go to salad” all the time! It is so fresh and tasty! I eliminated the onion ( personal taste) and I added sliced black olives instead of green pepper. Just delicious.
It’s versatile and definitely can be adjusted to suit your tastes. So happy to hear you loved it!
This was amazing! I added singe garlic too! Going to be a regular in my home.
That sounds great Nicole! Glad you love it!
I love your recipes, can’t wait to try the Chic pea salad! Sounds delicious! Thank you!
Thanks Lisa, it’s one of our favorites!
This is a fabulous salad, I’ve shared it with friends and everyone asks for the recipe. So simple but so healthy and filling. Love it!
So glad you enjoyed it Dale! Thank you for sharing the recipe! :)
I am not a fan of cucumber but I think this salad looks fantastic. Do you think zucchini would work well in this recipe instead? Thanks!
Sure it would.
This was a big hit. Will be making this quite often.
That’s great to hear Diana!
This was a great tasting recipe i didnt add avacado because i dont like it, and i only had chilli infused olive oil and that gave it a bit of a kick which we loved and i added allthe colours of the capsicum. Thanks for sharing.
I’m meal prepping this today for my lunches this week. I don’t have the red wine vinegar but I do have white wine vinegar. Would this work? I can’t wait to try this it looks so yummy.
Any vinegar of your choice will work for this recipe Michelle. It may change up the flavor a bit, but you’ll enjoy it!
My husband I decided to start a plant based diet rather than taking medicines to lower blood pressure and cholesterol.
So far its been a week and already I am seeing a reduction in BP numbers. This recipe was excellent! My husband loved it
I tweaked the recipe by using what I had in the house, I sauted my yellow onions first, I also used apple cider vinegar, I didnt want to buy red wine vinegar.
Excellent!
I am so glad you were able to make this recipe work with what you had on hand Mrs. Madison!
This salad is so good. It can be eaten on its own, like a salsa with chips or tossed in a salad. The possibilities are endless. Next time I might add shrimp & a little chili powder. I’ll definitely be bringing this to cook outs this summer.
That sounds delicious Tara! Enjoy!
I love this!! Its so fresh!
Sounds great. I buy cucumber often, any suggestions how to keep it fresh. It seems to get soft and mushy after 3-4 days, even English cucumbers. Thank you
Hello will make it a day before my guests arrive..thanks for sharing. I need to make for 25 persons.. Please advise the quantity of ingredients I will have to use.Also will the avocado not change color if I do it the day before with the dressing on?
This recipe serves 6 so I would suggest making 4x the recipe. I would add the avocado the day of serving.
I love chickpeas and can’t wait to try this salad! Just one question though, have you used cumin powder or whole cumin seeds for the dressing?
I use ground cumin (powder) for this recipe.
Added 1-1/2 c leftover quinoa and it’s delicious!
Fantastic salad! I’ve made this many times…keeps really well in the refrigerator. Also good with sun dried tomatoes (in oil), marinated artichoke hearts, calamata olives and feta cheese. Mediterranean style!
Those sound like yummy additions to this salad! I can’t wait to try it with artichoke hearts! Yum!
Delicious! Even my partner likes it and he is not a big fan of avocado or chickpeas and he doesn’t like tomatoes (boys and vegetables:)
I didn’t have a fresh parsley so I used fresh mint instead and it was very tasty. Thank you for the recipe! It’s a part of my home recipe book now
For such a simple recipe, this was REALLY tasty. I brought this salad to a potluck at work and it went fast. Because I had to make it ahead, I decided to leave out the avocado and although it would have been a nice addition, I really didn’t feel it was missed. Very good!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
I made this tonight, and oh-my! It was amazing. I am so excited to have leftovers for lunch. The only change I made was cilantro for the parsley because that’s what I had. Thank you!
Sounds delicious Cheyenne! Glad you loved it!
I made it with Cilantro as well. I used MCT oil instead, and it is a wonderful dish.
Put in my menu to have on a regular basis. Thank’s!
I prefer virgin olive oil for many of my recipes because it is not too overpowering. BEst thanks
I made this today. I’m not rating it because I changed 2 things. I used a Greek seasoning in place of the cumin and I didn’t add an avocado – mostly because I couldn’t find a ripe one and I was also afraid it wouldn’t hold up over a few days.
I liked it very much!
So glad you enjoyed it!
I followed this recipe to a ‘T’ and it was excellent! Thanks for sharing!
So glad you liked it!
Chickpea and avocado is the best combo! Gonna make this for my vegan mom <3
Very light, lots of flavor. easy to make
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!
This salad was crazy good!
I’m so glad you loved it!
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
Just made this tonight and my family loved it! This is definitely one of my favourite salads with awesomeness of goodness.
After reading these salad recipes I want to try the benr …
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!
Good delicious! I growing chickpeas in my garde.
This salad looks good and delicious, the salad dressing so perfect with all available ingredients!! Thank you!
Enjoy Aria!
My husband loved it.
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!
This salad looks amazing,but I dont care for chickpeas. Can I substitute Blackeyed peas for this salad?
Sure you can!
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!
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 looks so good! Perfect for hot summer days.
Can I make this a night before or better made day of?
Absolutely! This recipe keeps for a days!
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.
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!
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.
It looks fabulous, can’t wait to try it !!
I Love all your Recipes, Thank you Soo much !
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 bet if you used the guac and skipped the dressing it would be very tasty. Try it with a little bit of it. You can invent a new recipe. lol
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.
I used cilantro by mistake and it perked up the flavors wonderfully
What is a serving size?
Serving size would be about 1 cup.
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.
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.
This is one of my go to summer recipes that I have been making for decades. Love the addition of an avocado.
This looks crazy refreshing!
This looks delicious!
The picture looks so colorful and looks too delicious. I’ll try it for sure. Thanks for sharing it.
Hope you love it!
YUM!!! This salad looks so fresh and full of great flavors! Thank you for sharing :)
Fresh and delicious! Enjoy! :)
This is my perfect salad! I’d eat it every day!
It’s easy to eat every day!