This Mediterranean Chickpea Salad is a bright, colorful and delicious salad with a simple vinaigrette dressing. I’m always pulled in by the colors of this summer salad with fresh vegetables. The bright red and orange bell peppers, fresh green parsley and onions, red tomatoes and black olives create a beautiful visual presentation.
If you’re a lover of garbanzo beans, you might like to try our other recipes with chickpeas: Air Fryer Chickpeas, Chickpea Dip and One Pot Coconut Chickpea Curry.
Mediterranean Chickpea Salad is such an easy salad recipe to make. It’s perfect for whipping up as a light side dish when you’re entertaining guests, and it makes for a great, light lunch too (add it to a pita or scoop it into lettuce leaves). It’s one of those beautiful, marinated salads that improves with flavor the longer it’s refrigerated. And it happens to be good for you with plenty of fiber and plant-based protein from the chickpeas.
Mediterranean cooking is so healthy and flavorful. Consider making some homemade hummus and falafel too when you’re serving this chickpea salad. And be sure to try out my simple Greek salad as well.
Ingredients Needed for Chickpea Salad:
You’ll need plenty of chickpeas, and canned chickpeas are perfectly fine for that. Drain and rinse them well. I do encourage you to purchase a good brand of chickpeas over the generic. I just find that they have a better quality taste and they look better visually too.
You’ll also need tomato, bell pepper, green onion, and parsley. And to round it all out, you’ll add Kalamata olives and crumbled feta cheese. You can change up the veggies, according to preference. Suggestions are included below.
How to make Mediterranean Chickpea Salad:
The complete, printable recipe is in the recipe card at the end of this post.
It couldn’t be any simpler to make this salad! Combine the salad ingredients in a bowl. Then make the vinaigrette. It’s homemade, and it’s very easy to whisk together. It’s just extra virgin olive oil, yogurt, lemon juice, red wine vinegar, and a small bit of garlic, cumin, salt and pepper. Pour it over the ingredients in the bowl, and toss together. That’s it!
Recipe Tips
- Drain and rinse the chickpeas well. The canning liquid (aquafaba) has a slightly metallic, beany flavor, and rinsing makes the chickpeas taste cleaner and less “tinny.” The liquid is a little slimy, so you don’t want to add that to your salad!
- Chop all of the ingredients into somewhat of a uniform size for the best presentation.
- It’s perfectly fine to dress this salad in the morning and serve it in the afternoon. It’s definitely a most flavorful salad if the dressing is given time to turn the chickpeas into marinated chickpeas.
- For serving, feel free to sprinkle anything additional on top to make things pretty.
Suggested Additions or Substitutions:
- This salad is so customizable. If you aren’t so much into chickpeas, try using cannellini beans, kidney beans or black beans for this salad instead.
- Change up the veggies as desired. Consider using chopped cucumber, red onion, pickled red onions or chopped zucchini.
- Use crumbled goat cheese instead of feta cheese.
- Add a teaspoon of finely grated lemon zest.
- Include red pepper flakes in the vinaigrette if you want to add some spice.
What are the best things to serve with a Mediterranean Chickpea Salad?
There are so many options for things to serve with a chickpea salad. You must serve some pita or flatbread. And consider serving it alongside lamb souvlaki, poached salmon, turkey burgers, Greek chicken kebabs or grilled shrimp. If you want to serve another side salad, I suggest my Greek quinoa chopped salad. If entertaining, try making a Mediterranean charcuterie board!
What You’ll Love About This Recipe:
- This Mediterranean Chickpea Salad is the perfect recipe to serve for a special occasion or barbecue. It’s so very simple to throw together at the last minute, and you can even dress the salad ahead of time (encouraged!) for maximum flavor throughout the salad.
- The dressing acts as a marinade for the salad. Leftovers for the next few days are fabulous too!
- There is no cooking involved in making this salad. That makes it the ultimate summer salad (but I make it all year long)!
Mediterranean Chickpea Salad
Ingredients
SALAD:
- Two 15-ounce cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- ¼ cup chopped Italian parsley
- ⅔ cup chopped bell pepper (mixed red, orange, yellow)
- ¾ cup halved grape tomatoes
- 3 green onions, sliced
- 12 kalamata olives, halved
- ⅓ cup crumbled feta cheese
DRESSING:
- 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons plain yogurt
- 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
- 1 small garlic clove, minced
- ¼ teaspoon ground cumin
- salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
- In a large bowl, toss together the salad ingredients. In a separate bowl, whisk together the dressing ingredients. Drizzle the dressing over the salad and toss.
- Transfer to a serving bowl and drizzle juices on top. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
Notes
- Note: Much of the dressing ends up in the bottom of the serving bowl and doesn’t end up being consumed. The calorie count reflects eating ALL of the dressing, so the actual amount is likely quite a bit less.
- Use good quality canned chickpeas for this recipe (not generic). I really think it makes a difference in the flavor of the salad.
- If you are preparing this recipe as gluten-free, be sure to use a brand of chickpeas that is known to be GF.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Can you substitute cilantro instead of the parsley?
I have not tried that, and I think it would give the salad a totally different flavor. All a matter of preference- let me know if you try it!
Do you have to use Cumin Spice in the dressing????
It’s actually a pretty big part of the flavor of this salad…
Sounds amazing! Can’t wait to try this! Can I use regular white vinegar instead of red wine vinegar?
you can try!
Adding this to the menu at my restaurant, it’s delicious!
Love this will make it soon.
This looks yummy. I was reading through the recipe and had a question. It said to drizzle dressing on top and then drizzle juices on top. Do you hold out the lemon from the ingredients of the dressing to put on at the end or just save a drizzle of dressing out to drizzle over at the end.
no, that just means to drizzle all of the juices from the bowl you tossed it in when you transfer it to the serving bowl 🙂
How long does this recipe hold? I would imagine a couple of days but wanted to check. Thinking of making it Sunday night for a few days of lunches at work.
Leftovers are great for days!
This Salad is sooo good. I blended the ingredients and it came out creamier. Tweek with the seasonings abit. Ate with grilled chicken. My boys enjoyed this recipe. Thanks.
nice idea to blend the ingredients!
I am with you on no shower and wearing the same cloths. I don’t think there is anything fun in being outside all day and skipping the bath! Now the salad looks great. You had me at kalamata olives and Feta! Then you sealed the deal when you said it could be made ahead.. Nice! I hope the trip went great!
I like anything Mediterranean! I saw a research study that said the one diet that consistently proves to work is the Mediterranean diet. I love the picture than shows all the different ingredients separated and labeled. Makes it seem so easy to assemble. And the dressing sounds perfect (and healthy).
Thanks for sharing this gorgeous salad.
Lisa