Chickpea Salad is the perfect fresh and healthy dish with a homemade red wine vinaigrette over chickpeas, cucumber, tomatoes, and onions.
This beautiful salad recipe makes a delicious Dinner Side Dish or lunch salad. For more amazing homemade salads, try Sabrina’s Caprese Salad and Three Bean Salad next.
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Sabrina’s Chickpea Salad Recipe
Chickpea Salad is packed with amazing textures and flavors that all blend perfectly with easy homemade dressing over the top. Making a batch of salad as a summer side dish brings such a refreshing option to mealtimes. Plus, you don’t have to heat up your house by turning on the stove or oven on a hot day! It’s a great BBQ side dish that you can bring to a picnic or family get-together for everyone to enjoy while you’re grilling the main course.
The wonderful thing about this versatile salad is that you can make it to your own taste by substituting or adding different ingredients. You can make it more Mediterranean or Italian by playing with the ingredients. You could add spices of any kind. Look for more ideals farther along in this post.
Ingredients
- Chickpeas: Use 29 ounces of canned chickpeas for this recipe. Just be sure to drain and rinse the chickpeas before tossing them with the salad ingredients.
- Veggies: For the vegetables, use a combination of 1 crisp cucumber, 2 cups grape tomatoes, 1 red bell pepper, and ½ red onion. The veggies give the salad a crunchy texture, fresh flavor, and vibrant color. Cut all the veggies into bite-size chunks before adding them to the Chickpea salad.
- Avocado: There’s no better way to add creamy flavor and texture to the other crisp vegetable salad ingredients than by using Avocado. Dice up 2 avocados before tossing in the salad.
- Olive Oil: Olive oil makes the perfect oil base for salad dressings. Depending on the olive oil you use it can have a fresh and slightly fruity flavor. It’s also not as oily as vegetable oil or other options.
- Vinegar: Mix red wine vinegar with the oil for a simple vinaigrette. Red wine vinegar is very tangy, but it’s also balanced with a slightly sweet flavor that’s perfect for this recipe.
- Spices: To bring some more flavor to the dressing, you’ll ad ½ teaspoon dried oregano, ½ teaspoon garlic powder, ½ teaspoon kosher salt, and ¼ teaspoon coarse ground black pepper.
Kitchen Tools & Equipment
- Large Mixing Bowl: You’ll need to use a large bowl for mixing so the ingredients don’t fall out as you toss out the salad.
- Cutting Board and Knife: Grab your favorite kitchen knife and a cutting board, preferably with a lip or groove to catch the juices as you slice the veggies.
- Small Bowl and Whisk: A smaller bowl is suitable to whisk your salad dressing together.
- Spoon or Salad Tongs: Use a spoon, salad tongs, or another tool of your choice to mix your salad and dressing together and serve.
How to Make Chickpea Salad
Time needed: 5 minutes.
- Prep Time
Before making the delicious salad, you’ll need to prep all the ingredients. Rinse and drain the can of chickpeas. Then peel and dice the cucumbers into bite-size chunks. Halve the grape tomatoes, and dice the onion and bell pepper. Then pit, and dice the creamy avocado.
- Combine Salad
Add the chickpeas, cucumber, tomatoes, bell pepper, red onion, parsley, and avocados to a large mixing bowl. Then gently toss the mixture in a bowl to combine.
- Vinaigrette Dressing
Add the olive oil, red wine vinegar, dried oregano, garlic powder, kosher salt, and black pepper to a small bowl. Then whisk the red wine vinaigrette ingredients until well combined.
- Finish
Immediately add the homemade salad dressing to the Chickpea salad and toss gently to coat. Serve the fresh Chickpea Salad immediately.
“Can Chickpea Salad be made ahead?”
If you want to use this recipe for meal prep, you can keep leftover Chickpea Salad in the fridge for up to 3 days. However, if you know you’re keeping the salad in the fridge for a few days, keep the salad and dressing separate, then toss it right before serving. If you’re meal prepping, you can also wait to add the avocado since it will brown in storage. Instead, you can slice fresh avocado and add it to the Chickpea Salad recipe right before serving.
Nutritional Facts
Tips for Making Chickpea Salad
Make salad preparation super easy with these helpful tips:
- Shake the dressing
- For easy dressing prep, add the ingredients to a container with a tight lid. Once ingredients are added, put the lid on and shake it up for a well-mixed dressing. Pour it on immediately and enjoy!
- Use a sharp knife
- Did you know that a sharp knife is safer than a dull knife? You’re less likely to slip and make a cut you didn’t intend to make. A sharp knife will also make quick work out of dicing your veggies. Additionally, a serrated knife will be the best choice for slicing tomatoes as it cuts through the skin easily.
What to Pair With Chickpea Salad
This Chickpea Salad makes a wonderful side dish for lunch alongside a Club Sandwich or a Chicken Caesar Wrap. It will pair well with many different proteins like Cilantro Lime Chicken or Flank Steak. You cold also keep with the vegetarian theme and enjoy it with a Grilled Veggie Sandwich, Roasted Cauliflower, or a Baked Sweet Potato.
How to Store
- Serve: After preparing this Chickpea Salad recipe, you don’t want to leave it out at room temperature for more than a couple of hours.
- Store: To keep leftovers or make the salad in advance, cover the serving bowl in plastic wrap or transfer the salad to an airtight container. The salad can stay good stored in the fridge for 2-3 days.
- Freeze: If you’re interested in a more long-term storage option, you can seal the salad and store it in the freezer. While this recipe only stays good for a few days in the fridge, you can store it for up to 3 months in the freezer. Then let it thaw in the fridge and toss again before serving.
Ideas to Serve Chickpea Salad
While Chickpea Salad makes a wonderful side, you can also serve Chickpea Salad as a complete meal on its own. If you want to make it into a more filling dish, you can add meat to the recipe. If you have leftover Grilled or Roasted Chicken, shred the meat with a fork. Then toss chicken with the chickpea salad recipe.
Frequently Asked Questions
It is personal choice, but some cucumber skins are very thick, bitter, or waxy. This makes them much harder to eat so you might want to peel them. Some varieties of cucumbers have thinner skins however, like English or Persian cucumbers and it is less important to peel them.
Yes! Garbanzo beans and chickpeas are just two names for the same nutritious legume.
Chickpea or Garbanzo Bean Salad is a great recipe to add to any diet. Chickpeas are packed with potassium, B vitamins, and fiber, all of which promote heart health. Chickpeas also add a non-meat protein to salads, which is perfect for vegetarians. This delicious Chickpea Salad also contains other healthy vegetables like cucumbers, tomatoes, and bell peppers. Plus, all the fresh ingredients are topped in a light, low-calorie vinaigrette dressing.
Recipe Card
Ingredients
- 29 ounces canned chickpeas , drained and rinsed
- 1 cucumber , peeled and chopped
- 2 cups grape tomatoes , halved
- 1 red bell pepper , chopped
- 1/2 red onion , finely diced
- 1/2 cup parsley finely chopped
- 2 avocados , pitted and diced
Red Wine Vinaigrette Dressing:
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
Instructions
- Add the chickpeas, cucumber, tomatoes, bell pepper, red onion, parsley, and avocados to a large bowl.
- In a small bowl whisk together the olive oil, red wine vinegar, dried oregano, garlic powder, salt, and black pepper.
- Immediately add to the salad and toss together gently.
Nutrition
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Variations
- Beans: If you want to add some more protein-packed legumes to this salad recipe, you can add some beans. Mix in rinsed and drained black beans, kidney beans, or pinto beans to go with the canned chickpeas.
- Lemon Vinaigrette: If you want to add zesty lemon flavor to the Chickpea Salad, mix a tablespoon or so of fresh lemon juice into the vinaigrette dressing. Fresh dill or a chopped garlic clove will make a delicious addition to this lemon dressing option.
- Cheese: If you’d like to add some fresh cheese to this recipe, you can sprinkle in mozzarella cheese or fresh parmesan cheese. Alternatively, use a crumbly cheese option like feta cheese or blue cheese for added flavor and texture.
- More Add-ins: Salads are such easy recipes to customize because you can add more veggies and other mix-ins that you like. Try different kinds of tomatoes, Kalamata olives, black olives, fresh spinach, green onion, green bell pepper, or corn kernels.
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