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This Chickpea Salad is loaded with fresh veggies for a nutrient packed and easy to make recipe. It’s perfect for make ahead lunches or summer cookouts, and finished with a simple lemon and olive oil dressing.
Ingredients to make chickpea salad
- Chickpeas: Use canned chickpeas for ease and convenience. Drain them and rinse them thoroughly.
- Cucumbers: I like to use Persian cucumbers that are less sweet and more mild, but you can use a regular English cucumber if that’s what you have.
- Tomatoes: I like to use grape tomatoes that have a natural sweetness to them and less water; you can also use cherry tomatoes.
- Avocado: Use a ripe but firm avocado. If you are making the salad ahead of time don’t add the avocado until you are ready to serve.
- Red onions: Red onions add a nice bite to the salad. Be sure to slice finely so that it’s not too overpowering.
- Green Peppers: The peppers add a slight bitterness to the salad. If you don’t like green you can use red, yellow or orange or skip them all together.
- Olives: I like to add olives for a little saltiness. You can replace with capers if you’d like.
- Fresh parsley: Parsley adds a wonderful freshness to the dish and can be substituted with other fresh herbs.
- Olive oil, lemon juice, sumac, cumin, salt and pepper: For the simple and fresh dressing to brings the chickpea salad together so well!
Assemble the salad
Place everything in a larger serving bowl except for avocados and dressing. You can do this up to a day in advance to free up time if necessary.
When you’re ready to serve, drizzle the dressing over the chickpea salad and toss it all together.
Add the avocados right before serving so they look their best and don’t rub off on the rest of the chickpea salad ingredient.
Tips to make this chickpea salad
- Don’t add the avocado until you are ready to serve. The avocado will start to brown if it’s added to the salad too early. Add it just as you are ready to serve it and mix it in.
- Use canned chickpeas. It makes this salad quick and convenient to make. If you are use dried chickpeas, be sure to check out my How to cook chickpeas post for all my tips and tricks.
- Keep the salad in an airtight container if you are making it ahead of time. You can add the dressing right away as there are no leafy greens that could wilt.
- Make it a full meal by adding extra protein like grilled chicken or salmon patties. The chickpea salad can definitely even be served on its own as a meal thanks for the protein-rich chickpeas!
Frequently asked questions
Yes! This chickpea salad is 100% vegan, as well as being gluten-free and high in protein. It’s makes a great healthy meat free lunch that is loaded full of flavor.
Yes! This salad will keep in the fridge for 3 to 4 days making it ideal for make ahead lunches. Remember not to add the avocado before serving, but the dressing can be added.
The dressing is a base of olive oil and fresh lemon juice – be sure to use fresh lemon juice not the bottled stuff! It is seasoned with sumac and cumin for a wonderful zingy and simple dressing. The dressing can be made ahead of time and kept sealed in the fridge for up to two weeks.
I love how quick and easy it is to make this wonderfully fresh and delicious salad. It’s a great healthy meat free meal packed with goodness!
More Mediterranean salads
If you’ve tried this healthy-ish feel good Chickpea Salad recipe or any other recipe on FeelGoodFoodie, then don’t forget to rate the recipe and leave me a comment below! I would love to hear about your experience making it. And if you snapped some shots of it, share it with me on Instagram so I can repost on my stories!
Chickpea Salad
Ingredients
- 2 15 ounce cans chickpeas rinsed and drained (19 oz)
- 2-3 Persian cucumbers diced
- ½ pint grape tomatoes halved
- 1 avocado diced
- ½ red onions sliced
- ½ cup green bell peppers diced
- ¼ cup olives pitted, chopped
- ¼ cup fresh parsley
Dressing
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 3 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon sumac
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin
- Salt and pepper
Instructions
- In a large bowl, place all the prepared salad ingredients including the chickpeas, cucumbers, tomatoes, avocado, onions, green peppers, olive and parsley.
- In a small bowl or jar, whisk together the dressing ingredients.
- When ready to serve, pour the dressing over the salad and gently toss to combine.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information provided is an estimate. It will vary based on cooking method and specific ingredients used.
Loved this! Perfect lunch salad and the kids loved help me make it.
Thank you! That makes me so happy to hear!
I absolutely loved this salad! so easy to make and super delicious ! will definetly make it more often 🙂
That makes me so happy to hear! Thank you!
This was delicious! Thanks for the recipe. I just omitted the olives because I wanted less salt in the salad, and it was still great!
So glad to hear it! Thank you so much for taking the time to share 🙂
Loved this recipe! Its packed with nutrients, is soo delicious and yet so so easy to make!
Perfect for summer salads, perfect for eating healthy!
Who said that healthy and tasty cant go hand in hand together?! Thank you @feelgoodfoodie for your wonderful recipes always. We love them 🤗
Yay, so glad to hear! Thank you!
I made the chick pea salad for the fam yesterday! Fantastic! Only used Cumin in the dressing though (but that was just enough for the kiddos). Even better the next day tossed with a little left over dressing.
So glad you enjoyed the salad – I agree it’s great the next day still. Thanks so much!
I just made this for Father’s Day and it was a huge hit! Super easy and very flavorful! Some ate it with feta and said it was great! Added bonus-it’s really beautiful!
So glad to hear everyone enjoyed it! Thanks so much for sharing!!
This recipe is perfect for warm day in California. Family loved it. Thank you.
So glad to hear it. Thank you!