Chickpea Salad is packed with flavor, featuring crisp veggies and zesty dressing, and it’s easy to prepare.
This Mediterranean-inspired Chickpea Salad is one of my favorites! If you love this one, be sure to try this Couscous Salad (great meal prep recipe!), Quinoa Salad, or Cucumber Salad (reader favorite!)
Chickpea Salad
After a bit of holiday indulging there is nothing I crave more than a tasty and filling salad. This Mediterranean-style Chickpea Salad definitely fits the bill. Speaking of holiday indulging, we had a total of THREE trick-or-treaters this year, so if you want to guess where that leftover candy has gradually disappeared to, well, I’m blaming that on the pregnancy cravings. 😉
Luckily those same cravings also have me making (and eating) salads frequently. Balance, right?
Read on for steps on how to make this Chickpea Salad as well as how to meal prep this recipe.
Chickpea Salad is so simple to make and it comes together nicely – while the chickpeas are roasting and couscous is cooking, you can prepare the vegetables and assemble the dressing. Below is a quick breakdown of how to prepare this recipe:
How To Make Chickpea Salad
- Prepare the chickpeas and toss in olive oil, spices, and cook until they are crisp.
- Prepare the couscous according to package instructions.
- Chop the vegetables and toss them together.
- Prepare the dressing by adding all of the ingredients to a jar and shaking until combined.
- Top with feta cheese lemon, salt, and paper to taste. Serve as a salad or meal prep it.
FYI: Simply leave off the feta cheese to make this Chickpea Salad vegan.
How To Meal Prep Chickpea Salad
- Get 3-4 equal-sized meal prep containers and 3-4 small containers for the dressing. You’ll want to store the dressing separately to avoid the salad getting soggy. You can buy bulk dressing containers, use dressing-sized plastic containers, or use small snack-sized plastic bags.
- Prep the couscous first. While the couscous is cooking, prep the veggies. The veggies get chopped up and divided equally among the containers.
- Finish it off with salt + pepper, a wedge of lemon, parsley, and feta cheese!
- To serve each day: Add the dressing and olives, squeeze the lemon over everything, stir together, and eat!
I mentioned this Chickpea Salad recipe is great for meal prepping; I’ll share more details in the next couple of paragraphs if you’re interested in prepping out this salad for four days of meals.
Quick Tip
Have you tried Aquafaba? It’s the liquid that canned chickpeas are packaged in. Instead of draining and discarding, use it in place of eggs in pancakes, waffles, mayonnaise, meringues, and anything else. It’s a great vegan cooking tool! One tablespoon of aquafaba equals one yolk, 2 Tbsp. for one white, and 3 Tbsp. for one whole egg.
Chickpea FAQs
This salad will stay fresh for up to 4 days when refrigerated in an airtight container, with the dressing stored separately. Chickpea salad doesn’t hold up well for long when the dressing is mixed in.
Canned chickpeas are cooked but bland. Roasting them in olive oil with seasonings is my “secret” to the best Chickpea Salad. If you’re unsure about chickpeas in salad, try roasting them!
Stock up on extra cans—you’ll be hooked! Chickpeas are versatile, so there are plenty of other ways to enjoy them.
In addition to adding them to this chickpea salad, you can add them to this One-Pan Veggie Chickpea meal, turn them into homemade hummus, and/or make falafel!
Variations
- Mediterranean: Use quinoa instead of couscous, add artichoke hearts and green olives, and season chickpeas with the seasoning mix in these Air Fryer Chickpeas. Drizzle on the dressing from this Mediterranean Orzo Salad.
- Mexican: Replace couscous with quinoa or rice, mix in black beans, corn, avocado, and cilantro, and use taco seasoning on the chickpeas.
- Switch Up The Dressing: Try this delicious Balsamic Vinaigrette or Italian Dressing for a delicious option.
More Delicious Salads
- Pear Salad
- Chicken Salad
- Panzanella Salad (RAVE reviews!)
- Italian Salad
Chickpea Salad
Ingredients
Chickpeas
- 1 can (15 ounces) chickpeas, well rinsed and drained
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon EACH: ground cumin, ground chili powder
- Optional: 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- Salt and freshly cracked pepper
Salad
- 1 package (4.7 ounces) Pearled Couscous Mix (I use one made by Near East), Roasted Garlic & Olive Oil flavored Note 1
- 1 and 1/2 cups chopped cucumber
- 1 and 1/2 cups (~8 ounces) cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1/2 cup Kalamata olives, chopped
- 1/4 cup flat-leaf Italian parsley finely chopped
- 1/2 cup (1 full) jarred roasted red bell pepper, chopped (find these near olives, pickles, etc. in a jar)
- Optional additions: toasted pita bread, additional lemon cut into wedges, feta cheese
Salad Dressing
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- 1-2 large lemons (1/2 teaspoon zest; 4 tablespoons juice)
- 1 and 1/2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Place chickpeas in a bowl, add 1 tablespoon olive oil, cumin, chill powder, cayenne pepper and salt (I add 1/4 teaspoon; add to preference). Toss well, making sure chickpeas are evenly covered with spices. Spread chickpeas in an even layer on a baking sheet and bake for 25-30 minutes, tossing about halfway in the cooking time, until they are crisp. Let them cool completely before you add them to the salad.
- Prepare the couscous mix according to package instructions making sure to add in the seasoning mix. See Note 1. If you don't use couscous from a package, you'll want to add some of your favorite seasonings because a lot of the flavor in this salad comes from that seasoning.
- While the couscous is cooking, prep the veggies: chop the cucumber, halve the cherry tomatoes, chop the olives, chop the parsley, and chop the roasted red pepper. Toss the veggies together. If you are going to meal prep; leave out the olives (add separately or they tend to make everything taste like olive!)
- Prepare the dressing by adding all of the dressing ingredients to a jar: 4 tablespoons olive oil, lemon juice and zest, red wine vinegar, honey, Dijon mustard, and dried oregano (I add about 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper, but add to your personal preference). Seal the jar and shake until combined.
- TO SERVE AS A SALAD: Add the prepared couscous to a large bowl and allow to cool. Add in all of the veggies and cooled chickpeas. Add in some feta cheese, freshly squeezed lemon, salt and pepper to taste, and the dressing. Only dress what you will enjoy as this salad doesn’t sit well for a long time with the dressing on it.
- TO MEAL PREP: Divide the dressing evenly into 3-4 small containers. Divide the couscous evenly among the meal prep containers. Add in equal parts of all of the chopped veggies and chickpeas (again, keep olives separate). Add a lemon wedge, some feta cheese, and cover everything with some salt and pepper. To enjoy, add the dressing, squeeze the lemon over everything, stir together, and eat!
Video
Recipe Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I never comment on recipes, but I have made this as a meal prep lunch for the past 4 weeks of work and I am not sick of it! I love how healthy and filling it is. I don’t add feta to make it a vegan meal. Thank you so much!
Yay!! Love hearing that! Thanks for the comment and review Stevie 🙂
Just made this today. Mixed the olives in when I should have separated for meal prep (oops!) but that’s ok. I love kalamata olives.
This was really delicious. I really love the dressing! I’m a huge fan of lemons so this was perfect for me. Even my husband enjoyed it. I’ll be making more of this in the future!
Thanks for the recipe!
So happy to hear it!! Thanks so much for the comment and review Ayrx 🙂
Loved this recipe! Have made it twice. Only issue is that the chickpeas gets a little hard and soft when meal prepped in advanced ?
Glad you’ve enjoyed! Have you tried storing the chickpeas separately in a separate container?
I made this past night and it was great! Only issue was the I put the dressings in the fridge over night and it formed chuncks ?
It’s just the olive oil solidifying- it does that at cold temps. Take the vinaigrette out of the fridge about 20-30 minutes or so before you need it to bring it back up to temperature then shake it up or remix it 🙂
Sooooooo good! My husband and I love eating Mediterranean inspired meals. The only change I made was adding 2 cloves of fresh garlic to the dressing because we are garlic fanatics. Will definitely be meal prepping this recipe again.
Ahh I’m soo happy you guys enjoyed this! I also am a total garlic fanatic so I definitely need to try it with extra garlic! Thanks for your comment! 🙂
This was excellent! I was skeptical when I tasted the dressing by itself, but when mixed in, all the flavors came together really well. Thank you!
Yay! I’m soo glad you enjoyed! Thanks Elyse! 🙂
Excited to try this recipe! What can I use as a substitute for red wine vinegar? Also, is there a store bought dressing I could use to replace homeade?
I hope you love it! I don’t know of any lemon store bought dressings unfortunately. You can use white wine vinegar in place of red wine, although it will taste slightly different.
I replaced the couscous with quinoa and it was fantastic. The whole family loved it.
Ooh that sounds awesome! So glad you guys enjoyed! 🙂
I just made this and it is so good. I didn’t have couscous, so I used quinoa. I’ll definitely be using this in my meal prep rotation. Thank you!
So happy to hear that!
So glad I saw your comment, I only have orzo on hand
I meal prepped this last night. Great for lunches. Wasn’t a fan of the dressing. Tasted too much like lemon. I used a olive oil vinegrette instead and it worked well.
Sounds awesome! Thanks Amanda! 🙂
Did you add the 4 tablespoons of olive oil? It doesn’t mention it in the actual list of ingredients but explains to add the remaining olive oil in the directions. I was confused at first.
Thanks for pointing that out Jo! I updated recipe to make it more clear 🙂
This looks so good! Perfect for meal prep, oh and I LOVE chickpeas.
Thank you so much for the comment Amy! 🙂