Greek-ish Chickpea Salad with Creamy Balsamic Dressing

SO flavourful and satisfying, this quick + easy chickpea salad is tossed with a tangy balsamic dressing, tender herbs and all your favourite Greek salad veggies. Perfect for lunches, picnics or potlucks!

I’ve always been a big eater…but I didn’t really get serious about cooking until my 30s (having kids will do that to you). Actually, I think I spent the bulk of my 20s alternating between eating Annie’s mac and cheese, veggie burgers and a roughly chopped Greek salad. Which probably means I was protein deficient for most of the decade, ha.

Now that I’ve matured (maybe…jury’s still out), my stomach and my dietitian brain agree that a meal needs to be just as filling as it is flavourful, even if I don’t wanna cook all that much. Which is where this Greek-ish take on a classic chickpea salad comes in.

It’s from my cookbook Plant Magic, and it’s a wee bit different than some of the other recipes out there, which are more of a Greek salad with a can of chickpeas thrown in. This is a chickpea salad first and foremost: we’re talking 3 cans of chickpeas…and then we throw in the Greek salad veggies!

All those chickpeas means it will work well as a light meal all on its own…and it keeps well so you can use it as meal prep. If you want a boost of protein, this would be delicious with my tofu skewers (and maybe the cashew tzatziki from the book!) Or, if you need a dish to take to a party…this one is great because it’s naturally gluten free + dairy free so more folks can enjoy it. So let’s get chopping!

How to make this ridiculously quick + easy Greek chickpea salad

All you need is 20 minutes and a salad bowl, and you’ve got a vegan chickpea salad that is all of the things: fresh + crunchy, tangy and salty and so dang good you might want to slurp up the extra dressing.

You can totally use canned chickpeas here – no need to be a hero – but if you’ve got home-cooked chickpeas on hand, those are great too.

Want to change up the herbs? Go for it! A little mint could be nice here too.

Nutrition Note: I’ve listed this one as making 6 side dish servings in the recipe card – each serving will have about 10g protein and 9g fibre – but like I said, I love to eat this one for lunch or dinner too and it should feed 4 as a light meal.

More yummy + healthy bean salad recipes:

• 15 Minute Crunchy Chickpea Cucumber Salad
• Nourishing Kale and Quinoa Salad with Edamame
• 20 Minute Cold Lentil Salad with Herbs
• 15 Minute Herby Bean Salad with Balsamic Dressing
• Vegan Lentil Taco Salad with Creamy Dressing

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Greek-ish Chickpea Salad with Creamy Balsamic Dressing

SO flavourful and satisfying, this quick + easy chickpea salad is tossed with a tangy balsamic dressing, tender herbs and all your favourite Greek salad veggies.

Course Lunch, Salad, Side Dish

Cuisine American, Greek

Diet Gluten Free, Vegan, Vegetarian

Keyword balsamic vinegar, cherry tomatoes, Chickpeas, cucumber

Dietary Preference dairy free, Gluten-Free, nut free, vegan, vegetarian

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Total Time 20 minutes minutes

Servings 6 side dish servings

Author Desiree Nielsen, RD

Ingredients

• 3 x 14 ounce cans chickpeas drained + rinsed, or 4 ½ cups cooked chickpeas
• 1 cup diced cucumber English or Persian work
• 1 cup cherry tomatoes halved
• 1 medium bell pepper diced
• 1 packed cup curly parsley finely chopped
• ¼ packed cup fresh dill chopped, or switch up the herbs as you like
• ½ medium shallot finely chopped
• ⅓ cup kalamata olives halved
• 1 batch Creamy Balsamic Dressing

Optional…but delicious

• ½ cup feta-style cheese I like Violife or Millsie

Imperial – Metric

Instructions

• If you haven’t already, shake up the balsamic dressing in a jam jar and set aside.
• In a large salad bowl, combine the chickpeas, cucumber, tomatoes, peppers, parsley, dill, shallot, and olives with half the dressing and toss well.
• Serve the salad with extra dressing on the side.

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