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, 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
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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This was a quick salad but I need to experiment with some other things to bump up flavor. Maybe feta, maybe increase lemon juice, cilantro instead of parsley……any other thoughts?
Hi Janice, I think that feta and either a bit more lemon juice or lemon zest would be nice additions. You could also add a bit of ground cumin or coriander.
Janice – I used cilantro and it was great!
Love this salad. I’ve been adding Penzey’s Ozark seasoning instead of salt and pepper and I have a hard time stopping eating this. Jen, I understand the craving.
It amazes me that this has so many calories per serving. I am making this today.
The oil in this definitely boosts the calories, Karen. Hope you enjoy!
I made a similar version of this salad with feta a few times. I’ll definitely try this soon! My only minor grievance is the plastic-like “shells” of the chickpea – it was a real turn-off from eating them. Is there an easy way to get rid of this without having to “peel” each one by hand?
Hi Christina, Here’s an article that details a pretty easy way to skin your chickpeas. Hope you enjoy the salad!
i was interested to read about this method as I’m a huge fan of Cook’s Illustrated and almost always skin my chickpeas. The method I use is just as quick, uses no extra ingredients and makes no additional washing-up. I rinse and drain the chickpeas in one of those sieves with a handle. This loosens the skins. Then, holding the sieve with one hand, I use the other hand to simply pinch off the skins and discard them into the sink. In no time at all, I have a sieve full of nicely skinned chickpeas.
Good to know of another option – thanks for sharing, Davinia!
Use Goya Chickpeas, the skins are much softer, Goya cooks the chickpeas longer than other brands, it is the only brand for beans in our house.
Good afternoon chef Jenn!
I’m definitely making this in a little while. But instead of the parleys can I use cilantro? Thanks!!
And congratulations on the book, its amazing!
Yes, definitely – and thank you so much! 🙂
Delicious! I think this salad could be served with a lot of thngs. It’s flavourful but not so much that it clashes with other dishes.
As usual, delicious! The only note that I would add is that I cook up batches of chickpeas in my Instant Pot. I had to do some ‘calculating’ to figure out the cup equivalent to a 15-oz. can drained. My best estimate is 1 1/2 cups of actual chickpeas per can. If you have a better estimate, please let me know.
So good and so easy! We couldn’t stop eating it. Will be making ALL the time! My daughter actually liked it heated up in the microwave.
This was really good but I definitely felt it needed more seasoning than what the recipe called for. Really simple to throw together and really healthy. I will definitely make this again!
Yes I agree. I’d maybe 1-1/2 the rest of ingredients except chickpeas next time.
Try adding 3/4 t of curry powder instead of cumin, very nice addition.
Yum. A delicious side dish…or lunch. I’m so tired of potatoes or rice. This chickpea salad gave some real pizzaz to our steak dinner. Thanks!