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.
Adding a jalapeno like I always do as this is maybe the 20th time I have made this salad. My daughter & I are addicted and argue over any leftovers.
I’ve made this several times since I found this recipe. It’s amazing. And…. it’s salad — add more of what you like and less of what you might not like. Doubling the recipe is always a good idea because it goes fast around my house! I run, and I find this is actually a wonderful, powerful breakfast to get me going before I run – I call it my rocket fuel! So delicious.
Hello would it be ok to make this 24hrs before we eat it?
yes!
I just made this and I absolutely loved it!! So fresh and light.
Just made this and it’s outstanding!!! Thanks for sharing!
Can you make this ahead. I know I can cut it in half as I’m the only one who will eat this, but I would like it to las a few days.
Should be fine for a few days…
Can I leave out yogurt. What can I substitute with. Hate yogurt or sour cream or cream cheese
I’m not sure- this particular recipe calls for yogurt!
I just made this salad and it was delicious! I definitely will be making this again! Thanks for posting!
What is the spice cumin, and what does it taste like?
You’ll find it with the other spices. To me, it has a bit of an earthy, southwestern flavor. It’s perfect in this salad!
I make something similar except substitute the olives/ tomato/ feta with
black beans/celery/niblets corn/cauliflower
And sub red wine vinegar with apple cider vinegar, sub cumin with oregano, and I don’t use yogurt.
Very popular appetizer in our huge family anytime of the year!