Mediterranean Chickpea Salad (Easy, No-Cook Recipe)

Chickpeas are the star of this Mediterranean Chickpea Salad, and so they’ve acquired good firm! Candy cherry tomatoes, briny olives and capers, and a giant handful of recent herbs make the salad vibrant and balanced, all tossed in a straightforward purple wine French dressing you’ll wish to placed on every thing. Serve it as an on a regular basis facet or a light-weight vegan principal dish.

For extra vegan chickpea recipes, strive my Spiced Chickpea Soup, Chickpea Tagine, Jamaican Chickpea Curry, and Chickpea Tuna Salad.

Fast Look: Mediterranean Chickpea Salad

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook dinner Time: 0 minutes
Whole Time: 25 Minutes (with marinating time)
Servings: 4
Energy: 458
Protein: 14g
Dietary breakdown: Vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, and soy-free.
Taste Profile: Herby, candy, tangy, and recent, balanced with briny notes and nuttiness. Such as you’re having fun with your go-to salad at your favourite Mediterranean café.
Problem: Foolproof

Summarize & Save This Put up With

Why You’ll Love This Chickpea Salad Recipe

It can steal your coronary heart in additional methods than one:

Fast and Straightforward: Prepared in simply 10 minutes with anyone-can-do-it steps.
Meal-Prep Miracle: The flavour improves over time, and it retains and transports like a dream.
Naturally Vegan and Gluten-Free: No animal or wheat merchandise anyplace! This chickpea salad recipe can be naturally soy-free.
Versatile: Serve it within the warmth of summer time on the again porch, or cozied up inside with Vegan Meatloaf within the lifeless of winter. It all the time delivers.
Excessive in Plant Protein: With 14 grams of protein per serving, this one is a stunner.
No Cook dinner: Simply chop, open cans, measure, toss, and luxuriate in! No warmth, massive taste.

As many people residing the vegan way of life — or simply attempting so as to add extra plant-based meals to our week — have discovered, beans are one of the crucial cost-effective and nutritious methods to get plant protein on the desk. From chickpea burgers and black bean pizza crusts to black bean cookies and black-eyed pea curry, they’ll seemingly do all of it! Fifteen years in and I’m nonetheless discovering new methods to make use of beans, and this Mediterranean Chickpea Salad has grow to be considered one of my favorites.

Salads are an apparent car for beans, showcasing their unimaginable taste and texture. At present, we’re dressing chickpeas (also referred to as garbanzo beans) in a tangy-sweet purple wine French dressing and tossing in handfuls of recent chopped herbs, halved cherry tomatoes, briny olives and capers, and earthy artichokes. I make a giant bowl on Sunday and eat all of it week — proof that even within the easiest codecs, beans are nonetheless stunners!

Love recent vegan salads? You’re in the fitting place! Strive my Vegan Caesar Salad, Baby Kale Salad, Summer Salad, and Mango Avocado Salad.

Key Components

Chickpea salad ingredients displayed on the counter.

Chickpeas: Also referred to as garbanzo beans, you’ll want two cans. Rinse and drain them effectively earlier than including them, since any extra liquid will water down the French dressing. For extra-creamy, completely cooked beans, make them selfmade with my information on how to cook beans — you’ll want about 3½ cups.

Cherry Tomatoes: They carry sweetness and juiciness to steadiness all that brine. Grape tomatoes work simply as effectively, and within the peak of summer time, any ripe tomato from the farmer’s market will do superbly.

Artichoke Hearts: Earthy, tender, and slightly tangy. Jarred (marinated or brine) or frozen each work — simply pluck out the jarred ones effectively and thaw the frozen ones fully earlier than including them to the bowl. Marinated artichoke hearts are saved in oil, so do your greatest to empty off any extra oil earlier than including to the salad.

Olives: Use Kalamata or Niçoise olives for an genuine Mediterranean expertise, though Castelvetrano or Spanish olives additionally work nice.

Capers: These little flower buds pack a briny, lemony punch that wakes up the entire salad. Drain them earlier than including.

Herbs: For a recent natural taste and sweetness. Important for taste and freshness, so don’t skip them! Seize a mixture of your favourite recent herbs, equivalent to dill, parsley, mint, and/or basil.

Purple Wine Vinegar: The tangy spine of the French dressing. Its vibrant, fruity acidity is what makes this dressing sing. This entire salad was really impressed by my vegan nicoise salad recipe, so the dressing is nearly the identical.

Further Virgin Olive Oil: Quintessentially Mediterranean and value splurging on right here. Because it’s not being cooked, its peppery, fruity taste comes by way of in each chunk, so use a superb one for the most effective outcomes.

See the recipe card for full data on substances and portions.

Recipe Variations

Swap in any of the next to make this chickpea salad your personal:

Beans: White beans — cannellini, navy, or Corona beans — all make improbable stand-ins for the chickpeas. They provide barely completely different textures and flavors, although all are nonetheless scrumptious.
Use completely different greens: Don’t have tomatoes? Use chopped peppers and cucumbers, or roasted or Grilled Eggplant and Air Fryer Zucchini as a substitute.
Swap up the dressing: Swap in traditional balsamic for a bolder dressing, or white balsamic for a extra delicate contact that’s nonetheless Mediterranean in its personal proper.
Add lemon: A squeeze of lemon juice or a contact of recent lemon zest provides additional brightness.
Add vegan feta: Crumbled vegan feta brings a creamy, salty tang that’s proper at dwelling right here.
Add sun-dried tomatoes: Chopped oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes deepen the entire bowl with a concentrated sweetness.

Learn how to Make Chickpea Salad

Chickpea salad ingredients in the mixing bowl.

Assemble. Mix the chickpeas, tomatoes, artichoke hearts, olives, capers, and herbs in a big mixing bowl.

Make dressing. In a separate bowl or a lidded jar, mix the dressing substances besides the olive oil. If utilizing a bowl, whisk whereas slowly drizzling within the olive oil till the dressing is emulsified. If utilizing a jar, add the olive oil, screw on the lid, and shake till easy.

Gown salad. Pour the dressing over the salad and toss effectively.

Marinate. Let the salad relaxation for quarter-hour earlier than serving.

Jenné’s Recipe Suggestions

Marinate when potential. Marinating for simply quarter-hour earlier than serving lets the dressing soak into the salad and develop all these flavors. Refrigerate in a single day for much more.
Don’t skimp on the herbs. They’re a important taste part, so err on the facet of extra quite than much less. Use your favourite mixture of parsley, mint, basil, and dill.
Drain the chickpeas effectively. Moist chickpeas water down the French dressing. Give them a superb shake within the colander, then allow them to sit a minute earlier than including them to the bowl.
Choose your French dressing emulsion methodology. Shaking in a lidded jar is faster and extra simple, however whisking in a bowl usually creates a greater emulsion.
Season to style, particularly after resting. Because the chickpeas soak up the dressing, the flavors settle, so all the time season after marinating quite than earlier than.
Add some crunch. Garnish the salad with toasted almonds. Toasted pine nuts, pistachios, sunflower seeds, or sesame seeds all work rather than the almonds. Sunflower and sesame seeds additionally make it nut-free.

Chickpea salad in a serving bowl framed by olives and herbs.

Serving Options

Serve this vegan chickpea salad chilly, garnished with toasted almonds, as a light-weight principal dish or hearty facet. Toss it with cooked orzo, farro, or quinoa for a full meal. Or add cooked pasta to make it a vegan pasta salad. Pile it onto crusty toast, or tuck it right into a pita with a handful of arugula. It’s additionally proper at dwelling alongside any of those plant-based mains:

For extra texture (and bean goodness), sprinkle particular person servings with Roasted Chickpeas; for a savory, tacky end, strive Vegan Walnut Parmesan.

For a Mediterranean themed meal prep or mezze platter serve it with Grilled Eggplant, Sweet Potato Hummus, Fennel Salad with Beets, Pecan Muhammara, or Air Fryer Green Beans.

And if you happen to’re in search of much more, take a look at my roundup of the best bean recipes!

Storage Instructions

Refrigerating: Retailer leftovers in an hermetic container within the fridge for as much as 4 days. The flavors maintain creating, so day two is usually the most effective day.
Freezing: Leftovers don’t freeze effectively, because the beans’ texture will endure.
Make Forward: Toss the entire salad collectively as much as a day prematurely — that lengthy marinating time solely makes it higher. Add the toasted almonds proper earlier than serving to maintain them crunchy.

Chickpea Salad FAQs

What makes this a Mediterranean chickpea salad?

It’s constructed on the flavors of the Mediterranean coast — good olive oil, briny olives and capers, artichokes, recent herbs, and a vibrant vinegar dressing. No heavy creamy dressing in sight, simply easy, flavorful substances doing what they do greatest.

How lengthy can this sit out at a picnic or potluck?

Not more than two hours, or one hour if it’s above 90°F. Cooked beans and lower tomatoes each need temperature control, so nestle the bowl in ice if it’ll be on the desk some time.

Do I must peel the chickpeas?

Nope! Peeling is well worth the bother for silky hummus, however right here you need the chickpeas to carry their form and texture. Depart these skins proper the place they’re.

What can I take advantage of as a substitute of capers?

If capers aren’t your factor, chopped inexperienced olives or a spoonful of finely diced dill pickle provides you with an identical briny pop. It’s also possible to depart them out and add an additional squeeze of lemon.

Can I make this oil-free?

Sure — exchange the olive oil with just a few tablespoons of tahini thinned with water till it’s pourable. The dressing can be creamier and nuttier than the unique, so style as you go and regulate the vinegar and salt.

Chickpea salad with tomatoes, herbs, olives, capers, and artichoke hearts.

Extra Bean Salad Recipes

If you happen to tried this Chickpea Salad Recipe or some other recipe on my weblog, please depart a star ranking and let me know the way it went within the feedback beneath. Thanks for visiting!

Chickpea Salad

▢ 2 14 oz cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed (about 3 1/2 cups)
▢ 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
▢ 1/2 cup quartered artichoke hearts, jarred (drained) or frozen (thawed)
▢ 1/4 cup pitted Kalamata or Niçoise olives, halved
▢ 2 tbsp capers, drained
▢ 1/2 cup every chopped parsley, mint, basil, and/or dill
▢ Toasted slivered almonds, for garnish, non-obligatory

Cook dinner ModeStop your display screen from going darkish

Mix the chickpeas, tomatoes, artichoke hearts, olives, capers, and herbs in a big mixing bowl. Gently toss till mixed.
In a separate bowl or a jar with a lid, mix the dressing substances besides the olive oil. If utilizing a bowl, whisk whereas slowly drizzling within the olive oil till the dressing is emulsified. If utilizing a jar, add the olive oil, screw on the lid, and shake till easy.
Pour the dressing over the salad and toss effectively till evenly coated.
Let the salad relaxation for quarter-hour earlier than serving.
Garnish the salad with toasted slivered almonds and luxuriate in.

Chickpeas: Canned chickpeas maintain this fast, however selfmade work splendidly right here too. See my information, How to Cook Beans, for tender, creamy chickpeas from scratch (you’ll want about 3½ cups).
Jenné’s Recipe Professional-Suggestions

Marinate when potential. Fifteen minutes lets the dressing soak in. In a single day is even higher.
Don’t skimp on the herbs. They’re a important taste part, so err on the facet of extra quite than much less.
Drain the chickpeas effectively. Moist chickpeas water down the French dressing.
Choose your emulsion methodology. A lidded jar is faster; whisking in a bowl makes a greater emulsion.
Toast the almonds your self. Warmth them in a dry skillet for a couple of minutes till golden and nutty.
Add the almonds on the very finish. They soften within the dressing, so sprinkle them on proper earlier than serving.
Season to style after resting. The flavors settle because the chickpeas soak up the dressing.