Chickpea Salad

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This super-simple chickpea salad makes a delicious lunch or side dish to grilled shrimp or chicken.

Wooden bowl of Chickpea Salad.

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, grilled flank steak, grilled shrimp kebabs or grilled chicken. Feel free to add feta cheese crumbles to bulk it up, if you like.

What you’ll need to make Chickpea Salad

Salad ingredients including olive oil, red onion, and lemon.

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

Finely diced red onion on a cutting board.

Begin by finely dicing the red onion. Next, place the diced onions in a small bowl and cover with cold water.

Bowl of red onion in 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).

Red onion in a sieve.

Combine the onions with the remaining ingredients.

Unmixed chickpea salad ingredients.

Toss well, then taste and adjust seasoning with more lemon, salt, and pepper, if necessary.

Glass bowl of Chickpea Salad.

Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve. Enjoy!

Wooden bowl of Chickpea Salad.

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Chickpea Salad

This super-simple chickpea salad makes a delicious lunch or side dish to grilled shrimp or chicken.

Servings: 4

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

  1. 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.)
  2. 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.
  3. Make-Ahead: The salad can be made and stored in a covered container in the refrigerator up to 2 days ahead of time.
  4. 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

Powered by Edamam

  • 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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Comments

  • This is just delicious and an interesting way to serve chickpeas as a side dish. My parsley was looking a litlle limp so I used fresh basil and loved it.

    • — Sandra arch on June 24, 2024
    • Reply
  • Delicious! Got rave reviews from my family!

    • — Mary Andersson on June 23, 2024
    • Reply
  • This is such a lovely simple chickpea salad, which I make very frequently. My adult daughters love it, so there are seldom leftovers.
    Thank you for this recipe.

    • — Margot on May 9, 2024
    • Reply
  • Oh my word, this was good!

    I was charged with bringing a salad for Christmas dinner this year. And it had to be GF, DF, & low sugar. I asked a friend who follows a vegan diet and she recommended this recipe. Not something I would have chosen on my own, and we were super pleased she recommended it!

    Only change I made was using Heinz apple cider vinegar** in place of the veggie oil (as that was what I had on hand). Gave it a very very slight apple cider taste that melded perfectly with the other ingredients. This is why 4 stars and not 5.

    **NOTE: If anyone reads this substitute I used, on/regular apple cider vinegar (ACV) meets the GF requirement. Apple cider FLAVORED vinegar is NOT GF!

    • — KC on December 27, 2023
    • Reply
    • Acv is gluten free. Also, just to be clear, you gave this recipe a 4 star instead of a 5 star because of a change you made even though it was really good? Just want to know if it tastes better with acv or oil?

      • — Jackie Hawkes on November 16, 2024
      • Reply

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