The Ultimate Guide to Making the Perfect Chick Peas Salad: There are lots of bold flavors in this chickpea salad recipe thanks to the fresh vegetables, herbs, and tangy sauce. It’s great for picnics and lunches because it’s healthy and filling.
The chickpea salad
You should always have more chickpea salad recipes on hand, right? I agree, and I hope you do too, because this NEW chickpea salad recipe is the best one yet, even though this blog already has a lot of cute pea salad recipes.
It tastes like the Mediterranean, with crisp cucumbers going well with juicy tomatoes and soft beans going well with them both. Pickled onions and briny olives give it a tasty pop, and a bunch of fresh herbs make it all taste better. It’s all held together by a tangy lemon sauce.
This fresh chickpea salad is good for you, filling, tasty, and healthy. In the summer, this is exactly the kind of thing I like to make for lunches and trips. It’s already a meal; all you need is some light. Have fun!
What You Need for Chickpea Salad Recipe
- Beans and peas, of course! These reliable beans, which are also called garbanzo beans, are full of fiber and plant-based protein.
- For this dish, you’ll need three cups of cooked beans, which is two cans. My guide to cooking dried beans will teach you how to cook dried chickpeas.
- Grape tomatoes: To make this salad look beautiful, mix yellow and red grape tomatoes. You can also eat cherry tomatoes!
- English cucumber—to add crunch! English cucumbers are great for this recipe because they have thin skins and few seeds. Only regular cucumbers will do. Just peel and seed them before cutting them up and adding them to the salad.
- Adding pickled red onions gives the dish a spicy pop. Not enough time to pickle? You could also use sliced green onion.
- Kalamata olives: They taste salty and sour.
- The fresh parsley, dill, and mint in this salad give it an amazingly fresh smell. I really enjoy how the dill brings out the sour taste of the pickled onions and dressing.
- And the lemon dressing—this tangy dressing ties the salad together. It’s just garlic, salt, pepper, olive oil, lemon juice, and Dijon mustard mixed together.
How to Put This Chickpea Salad Together
- It’s really easy to make this chickpea salad recipe! This is how it works:
- First, make the sauce. In the bottom of a large bowl, mix the olive oil, lemon juice, mustard, garlic, salt, and a few grinds of pepper with a whisk.
- After that, put in the veggies, olives, pickled onions, and beans. Toss these filling foods in the dressing to cover them.
- After that, add the fresh leaves. Toss the salad items again to make sure they are well mixed.
- Lastly, add more salt or pepper to taste and serve! Before serving, I like to sprinkle this salad with more fresh mint leaves when I’m making it for a summer party or other special event.
Different Ways to Make Chickpea Salad
There are many ways to change this chickpea salad recipe, but I love it the way it is written. You can change it up! Add your favorite foods or the ones you already have on hand. Here are some ideas to help you begin:
Switch up the vegetables. Red bell pepper that has been diced or cooked should be added along with the tomatoes and cucumber. Onions or green beans that have been blanched would also taste great here.
Put some cheese on it. You can make this recipe vegan right now, but if you’re not, feel free to add cheese. It would taste great with crumbled feta cheese.Make a salad with greens. Place the romaine leaf pieces on a plate and top with the garbanzo bean salad.
HOW TO STORE AND MAKE Ahead
This chickpea salad can be kept in the fridge for up to four days in a container that doesn’t let air in. You can make it ahead of time and bring it to a picnic or potluck in the summer as a side dish, or you can pack it for lunch.
Tip: As the fresh mint sits in the sauce, it will turn darker and wilt. Should you make this salad more than an hour or two ahead of time, don’t add the mint until you’re ready to serve.