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This colorful and crunchy chickpea salad is full of Mediterranean-inspired flavor. I love loading up my salads with vibrant ingredients that are visually appealing, nourishing and filling.
I originally created this recipe for my 21-Day Cleanse. It is one salad that always surprises people, so if you’re on the fence about salads loaded with toppings, I’m ready to change your mind.
Ingredients in Chickpea Salad
I love using Mediterranean-inspired flavors and ingredients since the Mediterranean contains blue zones, places on Earth known for longevity. You can definitely add in the vegetables of your choice, or add even more cucumber, pepper or carrot to this chickpea salad. Chickpeas are also called garbanzo beans, so look for either name on the label. Drain and rinse well before using.
The Key to the Perfect Dressing
To brighten up the veggie-fest that is this crunchy salad I created a Citrus Tahini Dressing. The tamari and apple cider vinegar brings the zing while the orange sweetens. The tahini wraps it all up in a creamy package.
Depending on how thick your tahini is, you may need to add a bit of water to ensure this dressing is perfectly pourable. Use coconut aminos if you need a soy-free option in place of the tamari. The dressing tastes great yet also adds extra healthy fat to my chickpea salad.
Crunchy Chickpea Salad
Jen HansardIngredients
- 1 cup spinach fresh
- 1 cup chickpeas canned (drained and rinsed)
- ½ carrot diced
- ½ cucumber diced
- ¼ cup red bell pepper diced
- ¼ cup raw pepitas
- ¼ cup raw sunflower seeds
Instructions
- Whisk together Citrus Tahini Dressing ingredients. Add extra olive oil or water if dressing is too thick.
- Place spinach, chickpeas and veggies on a plate. Pour dressing on top and sprinkle with seeds.
Recipe Notes
- Swap spinach with the leafy greens of your choice.
- Feel free to load this salad up with as many veggies as you want.
- Chickpeas add healthy protein, swap with black beans if you aren’t a fan of chickpeas.
- Swap seeds with chopped cashews and almonds.
- Swap tahini with the nut butter of your choice (though texture + thickness will change depending on the nut butter used).
- Use coconut aminos instead of tamari to make this soy-free.
Nutrition
Chickpea Salad FAQs
They can be! Chickpeas are a wonderful plant protein, healthy fat and high in fiber. They are loaded with nutrients, like manganese and folate, so they are filling as well as nutritious.
Nope! Chickpeas should be cooked before eating. Canned chickpeas are already cooked, just rinse well before using.
I paired chickpeas with spinach, carrot, red bell pepper, cucumber, pepitas and sunflower seeds and topped it all with a bright tahini dressing. It’s loaded with protein, healthy fat and 100% plants.
Salad Challenge
What a unique combination of ingredients! I do love a salad with less greens and more substance, so this checked that box. The dressing was easy to make and very tasty with a perfect consistency. What overtook the salad was the large quantity of nuts, coupled with the other ‘crunchy’ ingredients, making for a lot of chewing! Very filling. I could not finish. Would I make it again? Probably not. But I will keep the dressing recipe.
I was very excited to make this salad. A friend of mine makes another version of this salad and I immediately fell in love. This salad had more color and crunch and is absolutely delicious. I can’t wait to make this for my friends.
This was yummy, forgot to post on Friday. I like trying new dressings and love tahini!
We had the tahini chickpea salad tonight as my daughter was here from Asheville and wanted gluten pizza with my salad dressing and salad. It was very good and tasty. They said that it would be better with the dressing that I make which they love and always want me to make when they are here. Overall it was very good.
A wonderful, filling, satisfying salad. I used a mixture of leafy greens. For my second helping, I added sardines which made it even better. Thanks to all the feedback by others, I now have a good list of swaps and add-ins to try in the future.
Although the recipe was easy to use, it took me two hours and fifteen minutes to make the salad and dressing from scratch. That’s a far cry from the fifteen minutes posted.