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Chickpea Salad combines all of my favorite fresh vegetables in one delicious bite.
Chickpeas are combined with juicy tomatoes, crisp cucumbers, and creamy avocados all tossed in an easy homemade lemon-kissed dressing.
This easy salad recipe is the perfect side dish for almost any meal or a great lunch. Add some protein like grilled chicken breasts to make it a hearty dinner!
This Is The Best Chickpea Salad Because…
- It’s incredibly easy to make with almost any salad veggies you love.
- This chickpea salad recipe is packed with protein and nutrients and tastes so delicious.
- The dressing is fresh and needs just a few ingredients.
- It’s great to make ahead and perfect as a side dish or for lunches all week long.
Ingredients in Chickpea Salad
- Chickpeas: Also known as garbanzo beans, this recipe calls for canned chickpeas. Be sure to rinse them to remove excess salt.
- Cucumbers: Use English, Persian, or baby cucumbers, as they have nice, thin skins and don’t require peeling.
- Tomatoes: You can use grape (or cherry tomatoes) or seeded and diced Roma tomatoes.
- Bell peppers: Green bell peppers add crunch and flavor. Use red bell peppers for a sweeter flavor.
- Parsley: Parsley adds a lot of flavor (and it doesn’t always get enough credit for the freshness it adds!). It can be replaced with other fresh herbs like cilantro or dill.
Variations
This chickpea salad recipe is so versatile. Swap in your favorite vegetables; red pepper for green pepper, white or green onion for red onion.
Try adding kalamata olives or a bit of feta cheese. Feta is quite salty itself, start with less salt when you add the seasonings.
How to Make a Chickpea Salad
- Add the veggies and rinsed chickpeas to a bowl (recipe below).
- Drizzle with oil, vinegar, and seasonings. Toss to combine.
- If using, top with avocado and enjoy!
Chickpea Salad Dressing
This salad is full of fresh ingredients so I keep the dressing nice and light. A simple mixture of red wine vinegar and olive oil with a hint of seasoning is all that’s needed.
Choosing Olive Oil: Extra virgin olive oil is considered the least processed and most flavorful, while extra light is the most processed and has a much lighter flavor (but it isn’t lighter in fat or calories). We prefer a lighter version of olive oil in this recipe. Vegetable oil or avocado oil will also work.
Fresh and Flavorful Salads
Did your family love this Chickpea Salad? Leave us a rating and a comment below!
Chickpea Salad
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 cups grape tomatoes halved
- 2 cups diced cucumber
- 15.5 ounces chickpeas drained and rinsed, 1 can
- ¾ cup diced green bell pepper
- ½ cup chopped fresh parsley
- ¼ cup finely diced red onion
- ½ lemon juiced
Dressing
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- ½ teaspoon cumin
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 avocado optional
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, combine tomatoes, cucumber, chickpeas, bell pepper, parsley, and red onion.
- Add the olive oil, vinegar, cumin, salt, and pepper. Toss well to combine.
- If using, cut the avocado into cubes and place in a small bowl. Squeeze the juice from ½ of a lemon over the avocado and gently stir to combine. (If not using avocado, squeeze 1 to 2 tablespoons lemon juice over the salad and toss.
- Refrigerate for at least one hour before serving.
Video
Notes
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Salad, Side Dish
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Made this salad today really easy to follow . Tastes really good added hot sauce to make it a little spicy .delicious
Absolutely delicious but I did make a very minor change. Since this is practically a Greek salad I leaned a bit more into that by switching the cumin with oregano and topping with feta. Definitely adding this to my go-tos.
I made this salad for a big party with lots of other salad options. This one was the only one completely consumed and everyone loved it. Even the carnivorous men who really don’t eat salad!
I am about to make it again so I don’t have to share.
I’m a spicy kinda gal so I added more cumin, cayenne, extra red wine vinegar and a bit of garlic. Thank you for a great recipe base.
I was looking for a recipe for a chickpea salad and ran across this one. I made it exactly with directions with the exceptions I multiplied it four times. I used yellow and red peppers as we do not like green peppers. The dressing I did add 2 tablespoons of honey that helped it a great deal in lifting it even higher, I will keep this recipe in my all my days
Easy to make but it ended up being quite bland. Next time I’ll definitely add feta and double spices etc.
I’ve made this a few times so far and it’s amazing! In our house we put garlic on everything so my only addition was 1 minced fresh clove per serving and it’s perfect for us. We recently changed to the vegan lifestyle and this is good for a main dish too!
Trying this tonight for my dinner.
I can’t wait for you to try it Linda!
Good recipe easy to understand
This is the most delicious, healthy salad I’ve ever made or eaten. I love it so much that I’ve made it more than twice and it’s my favorite “go to”.
I never comment on recipes so this means something….
That’s a big compliment MB! I am so glad you enjoy this recipe.
I made this last night and just tried it this morning. Very beautiful salad, but I do think it needed more lemon or red wine vinegar. Maybe I needed to swap it for eevo? I was looking for a slightly sharper flavor; Nevertheless, I was still able to adjust the salad to my taste!
Why “add chicken for protein “ when chickpeas are the protein? Totally unnecessary.
You can leave it out, some folks have different dietary requirements or preferences.
Missy came out here today and chose violence for no apparent reason lol
seriously! plus adding chicken would be delicious. I made this and was amazing. I added feta though. Sub parsley with clintro
Add Jalapenos!
Could I add quinoa to this and it would still taste great?
I haven’t tried it but I think it would be great! If you try it I would love to hear how it turns out!
Can the fresh herbs be omitted or can a dry herb be substituted? I don’t ever have fresh herbs on hand. Thanks!
I recommend fresh parsley for this chickpea salad as dry parsley doesn’t have the same flavor Amy. You can substitute cilantro or dill if you’d prefer. If you try it I would love to hear how it turns out!
I loved your Recipies, easy, simple, fast and tasty. I will make all the ones I saw starting with the coleslaw. Loved the tips too. Thank you.
I have seen this recipe two different ways. Adding the dressing before you eat the salad, or adding the dressing and then chilling and storing. I made it like your recipe and it’s amazing. I’m just wondering what the difference would be if you added the dressing as you ate it, like a regular salad.
Hi Dawn, I like to add the dressing and refrigerate for at least one hour to let the flavors develop. It would still be delicious if you ate the dressing as you ate it, but the flavor might be a little less.
i didn’t try it yet, but it better be good!!!!!!!
I am always looking for ways to add beans to meals. This salad was delightful. I am allergic to chickpeas, so I always change up the beans when I see them in a recipe. This time I used a 3 bean mix of red kidney beans black beans and pinto beans. Like another commented, not enough cumin for me, so I tripped it and added a dash of chili lime. Really nice salad. Thanks so much. I will now do this regularly. And I think it will be versatile with whatever I have in my crisper, such as red cabbage or carrots or zucchini, as well. Thanks.
I made this & absolutely loved it – I did take an additional can of chickpeas which I rinsed & drained & dried thoroughly & roasted in the oven to add for crunch. I didn’t have any green pepper so I just left it out. One thing I think I would do different next time is to add some additional cumin to the dressing. When I tasted it for seasoning it had a strong cumin taste but after I added it to all the vegetables & had it for dinner I couldn’t taste any flavor of cumin at all so I will add a smidge more next time but I really loved it!