Chickpea Salad
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This super-simple chickpea salad makes a delicious lunch or side dish to grilled shrimp or chicken.
Whenever we drive up to visit my husband’s family in Long Island, NY, we stop somewhere along the Long Island Expressway for a late-night meal at a Greek diner; you literally can’t go more than a few miles without passing one. One of our favorite spots serves a simple marinated chickpea salad to nosh on while you wait for your meal. This is my copycat version. It makes a great picnic or potluck salad, and it’s delicious with sandwiches and grilled shrimp or chicken. Feel free to add feta cheese crumbles to bulk it up, if you like.
What you’ll need to make Chickpea Salad
As you can see, I use both extra virgin olive oil and vegetable oil to make the dressing for this salad. Sometimes the flavor of olive oil can be too strong, so I like to cut it with vegetable oil.
How to make Chickpea Salad
Begin by finely dicing the red onion. Next, place the diced onions in a small bowl and cover with cold water.
Let sit for 10 minutes, then drain. This step tames the bite of the raw onion, which can be overpowering (at least for raw onion-phobes like me).
Combine the onions with the remaining ingredients.
Toss well, then taste and adjust seasoning with more lemon, salt, and pepper, if necessary.
Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve. Enjoy!
You may also like
- Creamy Cucumber Salad
- Antipasto Salad
- Moroccan Carrot & Chickpea Salad
- German Potato Salad
- Bulgur Salad with Cucumbers, Red Peppers, Chickpeas, Lemon, and Dill
- Classic Coleslaw
Chickpea Salad
This super-simple chickpea salad makes a delicious lunch or side dish to grilled shrimp or chicken.
Ingredients
- ⅓ cup finely diced red onion, from 1 small red onion
- 2 (15 oz) cans chickpeas (preferably Bush's or Goya), drained and rinsed (see note)
- 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1½ tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice, from 1 lemon
- ⅓ cup finely chopped fresh parsley
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- ⅛ teaspoon sugar
Instructions
- Place the diced onion in a small bowl and cover with cold water. Let sit for 10 minutes, then drain. (This step tames the bite of the raw onion.)
- Combine the onions with the remaining ingredients and toss well. Taste and adjust seasoning with more lemon, salt, and pepper, if necessary. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve. Toss well before serving and adjust seasoning again, if necessary.
- Make-Ahead: The salad can be made and stored in a covered container in the refrigerator up to 2 days ahead of time.
- Note: Different brands of chickpeas contain different levels of salt, so if using a different brand than the one specified, add salt to taste.
Pair with
Nutrition Information
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- Per serving (4 servings)
- Calories: 379
- Fat: 25 g
- Saturated fat: 3 g
- Carbohydrates: 31 g
- Sugar: 1 g
- Fiber: 10 g
- Protein: 11 g
- Sodium: 599 mg
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.
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My favorite dish to put on the table as an appetizer. I’ve had to start tripling because it goes so fast.
Oh, forgot to mention that quite often I use a can of garbanzos and a can of black beans. Equally delicious!
When looking for a side dish for just about anything (although I’ve been known to eat it straight from the bowl 😊), I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve made this since it first appeared. Just made it again, and said to my husband, ‘I love this because it took me 15 minutes start to finish, it’s nutritious, and best of all, it always tastes great!’ The trifecta! Thanks, Jen.
Made this salad yesrterday. it is delicious. The only thing I did differently is use cooked dry beans. My husband is a bit of a bean-snob, and I don’t have any kind of canned beans in the house !!! anyway, this only required that I plan ahead so that the beans could soak overnight. Otherwise, it was a quickly put together recipe. I did let it sit several hours in the fridge before serving. It makes a perfect lunch. Thank yu again for a great recipe.
My 8 y/o daughter’s favorite food is macaroni and cheese, followed by watermelon. Tonight I served her both with a side of this chickpea salad. After she cleared her plate she picked up the empty small Pyrex bowl I served this chickpea salad in, pointed at it and said she needed more of it because she was in love and I feel the same way. So yeah, go ahead and double this recipe, folks!
This is amazing, I love it. I add lots of fresh dill and a generous amount of feta cheese to make it a heartier side dish (or my lunch the next day if there are leftovers). I sometimes double this to make sure there are leftovers for me to enjoy!
Simple, easy and great side salad. Added it to my Easter dinner this year and was a hit.
So good and so simple.
I use this recipe all the time. My daughter just about eats the whole thing.
Simple and delicious!
Is this salad good for heart disease?
Hi Debra, I think it’s a healthy salad, but I’m not a nutritionist so can’t say for sure if it’s good for heart disease – sorry I can’t be more definitive!
I’ve made a similar garbanzo bean salad for years, but add garlic and for the dressing olive oil and wine vinegar.
Made salad today, added pitted black olives, feta cheese added great taste. Found for me dressing needed little more lemon so next time will add 1/4 tbsp more. This salad goes in the winner, winner pile. THank you you for sharing your recipe.
This has become our favorite go to salad!!
SO GOOD!!! Both my husband and son also loved this! I served this with BBQ chicken and corn and a simple green salad. Perfect for a summer lunch or dinner.
So good. Your Chickpea Salad recipe is delicious. I didn’t change a thing. Definitely something I will make again, and it would be great to bring to a covered dish get-together. Thank you for sharing this one.
Yum!!! I added chopped olives and celery and it was so good!!
I served this chickpea salad and a choice of grilled cheese or tuna salad sandwich for dinner this evening. I wanted something that wouldn’t heat up the kitchen… it’s 104 degrees here today! I will make this again but I will double the amount. I might try it with lime and cilantro instead of parsley/lemon. Regardless it’s a keeper. This is the second recipe of yours that I’ve tried this week.
Can I use dried parsley? If so, how much?
Hi Angie, if you want to use dried parsley, I’d add just about a tablespoon for color. It won’t add a ton of flavor though. If you’d like to stick with a fresh herb, you could use cilantro or mint in place of the parsley. Hope that helps!
This is exactly what I was looking for. Something that can give me all the flavors in one bite. I just threw it together and had it a taste before letting it sit in the fridge and I had a hard time not eating it all. Thank you for this recipe, it’s perfect as written.
After taste-testing this recipe, I can’t stop eating it! 😄 So easy, so delicious!
We have a couple of vegans in our family and I am always looking for great recipes fore them – this was a big hit! I did substitute the veg oil with grapeseed oil as it is nice and light on flavor – worked perfect 🙂
This was so easy and delicious. I made a batch and we each had a bowl to snack on, while waiting for dinner to emerge from the oven.
Your recipes are easy to follow, delish and visually appealing. Thanks!
All of your recipes are amazing, and this was no exception! So delicious and versatile. Thanks, Jennifer!
Hi…Pleased to be one of your followers, and share most of your recipes to my social media accounts…With due respect to you i do not recommend canned foods especially chickpeas,they are not healthy ..We make almost the same salad and more chickpeas dishes but always we use dry Chickpeas and cook them at home..Have great day.Zouhair
This was my dinner tonight. I added a chopped orange, and some diced dates. Oh my!
Can you use only olive oil? If so how much total? Thanks
Sure, you’ll need a total of 6 tablespoons. Enjoy!
This was such a simple delicious salad. the 2nd time I made it I added cucumber and tomatos and feta cheese.
I have fallen in love with this salad! I add feta and raw corn off the cob. Delicious and easy.♥️
healthy and yummy
Very good, but I didn’t follow it exactly… I didn’t use pepper, replaced sugar with honey, used 2 tablespoons and didn’t use vegetable oil. Still came out good and didn’t seem like it needed more oil.
I meant to say I used 2 tablespoons olive oil!
Awesome and easy to make. I added a handful of cherry tomatoes, quartered, for additional color. Definitely taste and adjust seasonings to your liking.
Was grilling some shrimp and stumbled on this recipe while trying to figure out what to make on the side. I had a moment of “do you really need a recipe for this?” But um, yes, it is a thing of magic really. Bonus points because I almost always have all these ingredients in my pantry and fridge. Will definitely make this again and might experiment by adding some orzo to make it a bit of a pasta salad?
Very simply… outstanding! Thank you for sharing this.
Simple, but so delicious, fresh and satisfying! Another great recipe! Thank you Jenn 👍
Chickpeas are not something everyone in my family likes but this salad was a hit. We all love it and will be making it more frequently. I served it with grilled chicken and it was just perfect.
Excellent! I added some Za’atar because I love it. Will be making this weekly for the foreseeable future! Thank you!
We loved this salad!! So easy and delicious. I am going to double it next time which will be real soon! Thanks again for another outstanding recipe!
This was perfect for lunch. I accidentally added both cilantro and parsley and it was great!
Delicious and so simple to toss together! I made a half batch to start out since I only had one can of chickpeas in my pantry. It’s time to stock up on chickpeas since I will be making this all summer long. Thank you, Jen for another incredibly easy and tasty recipe! Oh, and the soaking of the diced onion trick is fantastic 🙂
Jenn,
My Greek mom made a very similar salad, but added equal parts red kidney beans and used red wine vinegar rather the lemon juice. You may want to try it out!
Thanks for all the great recipes. Your strawberry cake has been on the menu every week for the last month!
Not Jenn here, but I absolutely want to try it out, and I will this weekend. Love this idea. 🙂 Thank you.