Nothing beats this Curried Chickpea Salad, complete with curry-seasoned chickpeas, a myriad of veggies, and the best dressing. This salad can be ready in 15 minutes or less and is delicious on its own and divine in some pita with lettuce.
We love a good chickpea salad! Try some of our other favorites: Chickpea Salad, Greek Couscous Salad, or this Italian Couscous Salad.
This Curried Chickpea Salad is part of our Back-To-School Lifesavers — a series of recipes that are intended to have little (or no) veggie chopping, minimal prep time, around 10 ingredients, or less (not including pantry staples), and use kid-friendly ingredients. Click here to see all the recipes in the series!
Curried Chickpea Salad
It’s no secret we’re obsessed with using chickpeas as a sandwich filling — in fact, there are tons of fun flavor variations on this site:
- Vegetarian Tuna Salad — tastes like tuna salad, but made with chickpeas
- Chickpea Salad Sandwich — with fresh veggies and herbs
- Pesto Chickpea Sandwiches — with sliced almonds and sun-dried tomatoes
- Buffalo Chickpea Salad — with a creamy Buffalo sauce
Curry Chickpea Salad Ingredients
- Chickpeas: also called garbanzo beans — they’re one and the same! See “quick tip” below.
- Celery: To save time, pick already-washed celery stalks.
- Red onion: A shallot or green onions can be used here instead.
- Parsley: Make sure to get flat-leaf Italian parsley, as opposed to curly for this recipe. Flat-leaf parsley has a more robust flavor and curly parsley is used more commonly as a garnish. Cilantro is a great substitute here, as well.
Quick Tip
Thoroughly rinse and drain the chickpeas. Wet or watery chickpeas will dilute the salad mixture and make it less flavorful. I love using a salad spinner to completely dry the chickpeas before adding them to the food processor completely.
Curried Chickpea Salad Dressing Ingredients
- Mayo: Use good, creamy, full-fat mayonnaise. We recommend Hellman’s/Best Foods®.
- Yellow curry powder: There is a lot of variation here, depending on the brand! Use a curry powder you know you enjoy with a heat level you can handle (we use McCormick®).
- Honey: This helps set off heat from the curry while adding a nice balancing flavor
- Lemon Juice: This delivers needed acid and vibrancy
- Dijon: Make sure to use dijon, not yellow mustard here!
[variation] To make Curried Chickpea Salad Vegan, use vegan mayo! [/variation]
Chickpea Curry Salad Tips
- Don’t over-pulse the chickpeas. We still want some coarse texture and for the chickpeas to be pretty chunky.
- To keep this recipe as simple as possible, we throw everything in the food processor. Pulsing the veggies and chickpeas in a food processor takes mere seconds! If you don’t have a food processor, the veggies will need to be finely chopped and then a potato masher or even a fork can break and crush the chickpeas.
Serving Suggestions
- Prepare a naan-wich or pita sandwich. Layer the chickpea filling on toasted naan or pita with ripe avocado, lettuce, and a few thinly sliced red onions.
- Make a Curried Chickpea Salad sandwich by toasting some hearty wholegrain bread. Spread mayo on the bread slices and then layer on some lettuce, a fresh, ripe avocado, and plenty of the curried chickpea filling.
- Make a Curried Chickpea Salad wrap by adding some lettuce, ripe avocado, and this sandwich filling into a tortilla that has been spread with mayo. For a low-carb meal, replace the tortilla wrap with a lettuce wrap.
Don’t forget the seasonings! Add additional salt, pepper (and even curry powder) until the filling flavors sing. Canned chickpeas contain different amounts of salt, so you may want less or more than what I’ve indicated in the recipe card. Quick Tip
More Chickpea Favorites:
- Chickpea Curry with the BEST curry sauce!
- Sweet Potato Coconut Curry Soup with chickpeas and kale
- Air Fryer Chickpeas crispy and well-seasoned!
- Mexican Chickpeas with a cilantro sauce
- General Tso Chickpeas with loads of veggies
Curried Chickpea Salad
Ingredients
- 1 can (15.5 oz.) chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- 1/4 cup celery
- 1/4 cup red onion
- 1/4 cup parsley (or cilantro)
- 1-1/2 teaspoons yellow curry powder (Note 1)
- 1/4 cup mayonnaise (Note 2)
- 1 teaspoon each: honey and lemon juice
- 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- salt and pepper
- For serving: warmed or toasted pita/naan, lettuce, avocado (optional)
Instructions
- Drain and rinse a can of chickpeas, then thoroughly dry them using a salad spinner for quick and easy prep. Chop celery into 1-2 inch pieces and red onion into 1-inch pieces for measuring.
- Add celery, red onion, and parsley or cilantro to a food processor. Pulse until finely chopped, scraping down the sides as needed. Add the drained chickpeas and pulse a few times to break them down. Add the remaining ingredients, seasoning with salt and pepper to taste. I use 1/8 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper, see Note 3. Pulse until the mixture is chunky but well combined, maintaining a coarse texture. Taste and adjust with additional salt or a squeeze of lemon for optimal flavor.
- Warm or char naan or pita over a gas stovetop. Spread mayo on the bread, then layer with your favorite sandwich ingredients like lettuce, ripe avocado with salt and pepper, and thinly sliced red onion. Evenly divide the chickpea mixture between the naan or pitas. Enjoy immediately!
Video
Recipe Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Beautiful simple and delicious
I love chickpeas.,all the time
Winter and summer
Thank you for sharing this easy Yummycilious recipe
I am so happy to hear this! Thanks Lallie! 🙂