Favorite Chickpea Salad
This chickpea salad recipe is the best! Everyone loves this healthy chickpea salad featuring bell pepper, celery, parsley and lemon. So good!
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on August 29, 2024
Have you met my all-time favorite chickpea salad recipe? Sure, I have many beloved chickpea salads on the blog already, but this is my tried-and-true favorite from my cookbook, Love Real Food. In the book, I called it the “Outrageous Herbaceous Chickpea Salad,” which is exactly right!
“Here’s a simple chickpea salad that I could eat every single day. It’s bursting with fresh Mediterranean flavors, thanks to chopped bell pepper, parsley, red onion, and celery. Lemon and garlic take it from tasty to transcendent. This salad packs well, so it’s perfect for potlucks and picnics. It’s also a great lunch option, so long as your serving is large enough…”
I love this recipe as much today as I did when I created the recipe several years ago. In fact, I stand behind all of the cookbook recipes, and it makes me so happy to hear that you’re cooking from the book!
I’m truly a healthier eater when I have this salad in the fridge. It’s the perfect hearty side salad or mid-afternoon snack. Pile it onto a bed of greens, or cooked whole grains like farro or quinoa, or even onto your scrambled eggs or cheese nachos. You can’t go wrong with this one.
Watch How to Make Chickpea Salad
The Best Chickpea Salad
Three more reasons to love this recipe:
- This chickpea salad is beyond easy to throw together. Chop up a few ingredients, rinse and drain canned chickpeas, and stir it all together in a bowl!
- This salad packs great for lunch, picnics, road trips and plane rides.
- Bring this allergy-friendly salad along to your next potluck—it’s vegan/dairy free, gluten free, and nut free, for all to enjoy.
More Chickpea Salads to Enjoy
This chickpea salad is my go-to, but trust me, these chickpea salads are completely delicious as well.
- Chickpea Salad with Carrots and Dill
- Favorite Quinoa Salad
- Greek Kale Salad with Creamy Tahini Dressing
- Herbed Quinoa & Chickpea Salad with Lemon-Tahini Dressing
- Jessica’s Marinated Chickpeas
- Lemony Lentil and Chickpea Salad with Radish and Herbs
Please let me know how your salad turns out in the comments! I hope this chickpea salad becomes your favorite, too.
Favorite Chickpea Salad
This chickpea salad recipe is the best! Keep this healthy chickpea salad in the fridge—it’s the perfect side salad, snack and meal component. It’s vegan and gluten free, too! Recipe yields 4 generous side salads or 6 medium.
Ingredients
- 2 cans (15 ounces each) chickpeas, rinsed and drained, or 3 cups cooked chickpeas
- 1 medium red bell pepper, chopped
- 1 ½ cups chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley (about 1 bunch)
- ½ cup chopped red onion (about ½ small)
- ½ cup chopped celery (about 2 ribs)
- 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 3 tablespoons lemon juice (from 1 to 1 ½ lemons), or more if needed
- 2 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
- ½ teaspoon fine salt
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, combine all of the ingredients. Toss until combined. Taste and add additional lemon juice, salt, or pepper if necessary.
- Serve immediately, or chill until you’re ready to serve. Leftovers keep well, covered in the refrigerator, for up to 4 days.
Notes
This recipe comes straight from my cookbook, Love Real Food.
Serving suggestions: Enjoy this salad as-is or serve it over greens or literally anything that could use some substance and vegetables (nachos or pasta, even). It’s nice with crumbled feta cheese as well.
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
Loved this recipe so much that I am going to buy the book! I did add chopped tomato and cucumber because I had lots in my refrigerator. Cooked my own chickpeas and added a few shredded basil leaves too.
Thank your your website and book!
You’re welcome, Marie!
Is there a substitute for parsley?
By the way I LOVE your cowboy caviar, I make it all the time and serve it over green leaf lettuce.
Easy to make, colourful, and delicious..thank you
You’re welcome, Diana! I appreciate you taking the time to review.
It isn’t actually allergy free for those of us allergic to peppers.
Even with the peppers removed, it is delicious.
I made this salad for a post-hike tailgate. Everyone loved it!! The only change I made was to add another 1/2tsp of salt. This is a keeper. I’m going to add feta the next time I make it and see if it works.
Tried this for the first time and it is so tasty! It’s difficult for me to crave vegetables as a mid-afternoon snack, but this one is a winner! I made this as written, but I think I will try subbing cucumber instead of celery in the next batch, since we have tons of cukes in our garden. Yum!
I’m happy you enjoyed it, Sarah! Thank you for your review.
Made this with butter beans as I had no chickpeas and it was delicious!
Just finish making this salad, and eating a bowl ! Wonderful ! The flavors all go together so well. Made it by the recipe with no changes, and it tastes so good ! Already planning to try the spicy black bean salad next !
Glad to add this salad to my repertoire, I enjoy it as a side with a number of middle eastern recipes.
Made it exactly as listed the first time, but I’ve since swapped to using cilantro instead of parsley, adding feta, and slightly reducing the chickpeas (I found the cilantro was more interesting than the parsley but still plays a similar role, and it was a bit too dry which both the feta crumbles and the reduced chickpeas helped address.)
I love how well this keeps in the fridge too, much heartier than most green salads even with the dressing.
Thank you for sharing how you made this, Owen! I appreciate your review.
Just made this for lunch. Super easy and delicious.
I’m glad you enjoyed it, Cheryl! Thank you for your review.
Made this for dinner this evening. The flavors are so fresh and delicious. Will definitely make again.
This is the tastiest salad ever! It’s so great to take to work for lunch. Very filling and so easy to make. I love it!
Great to hear, Natalie! I appreciate your review.
Thanks for the recipe. This was delicious. It’s light , flavorful, and soo delicious. I added pine nuts and sun dried tomatoes and it made it even more amazing!! 5 stars!!
Hello, I am trying to make this recipe for 220 students to taste, I will be giving each student 2 oz. how much do I need to make in total?
I know that the serving is 4 but how many oz is each serving?
Thank you!
Hi! Roughly 1.5-2 cups is a serving. I don’t have the weight measurement. Sorry!
Hi
Do you have a salad recipe book that I can purchase. I tried the chickpea salad… very very devine.
I have been making this recipe for years! One of our family favs.
You need to try it!!
Can I make this a day before without the dressing?
Sure, but the dressing is best to help it marinate. Let me know what you think!
So pleasantly surprised by the flavor of this! Love how adaptable it is, too
So satisfying and delicious! The crunch from celery and other veggies is nice with the chickpeas. This will be a regular this summer!
Great to hear, Rebecca! I appreciate your review.
I LOVE THIS RECIPE ,I SOMETIMES ADD A LITTLR GARLIC AND HERB FETA CHEESE ,SO GOOD.I COULD EAT 24/7
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I love to hear that, Carol!
So delicious! I added finely chopped tomato and a tbsp of honey. Yummy!
Recipe looks great, will make it for church potluck lunchch
I hope it was a hit, Aadya!
Just made it for lunch. It’s good!
Thank you for your review, Cheryl!
An addition of roasted pine nuts or almond slivers creates a lovely crunch factor
Thank you for sharing, Peter!
Although I altered the original recipe, it’s easily adaptable. I added canned julienned beets and fresh basil. It’s really yummy and maybe adding some feta cheese next time will also enhance it even more.
Easy and yummy! I make this frequently :)
Hi Kate,
This is a wonderful, simple recipe. I confess – I add a splash of sweet pickle juice which gives it a sweetness, to off-set the onion and lemon. Really great.
love your recipes…keep them coming!
Great to hear, Kathleen!
This is a middle eastern recipe called balela it has many variations. Middle eastern market by my house sells it.
I made your favourite chick pea recipe today and it is very nice. I did make some slight alterations: I tripled the dressing except for the garlic and I added some grated lemon zest as my lemons are not tart enough. Thankyou for the recipe. Have a happy New Year!
Happy New Year! I’m happy you enjoyed this salad, Iva.
Made this for dinner tonight as an antidote to holiday excess…. It was perfect and delicious ! Your recipes are consistent winners ❤️
Can the chickpea salad be frozen?
I don’t think this is a great option to freeze, sorry!
I wasn’t sure what to expect — I over-did it on a parsley recipe once and I’ve struggled with it ever since — but this was fresh and flavourful. I love the lemon dressing and, based on some comments below, added some Kalamata olives and feta. It’s a really, really nice salad.
Thank you for sharing how you made it, Tanya! I appreciate your review.
What attracted me to the picture of the salad was how colourful it looked. It tastes great. Thank you for the ideas. Next time, I am going to make it with cilantro and another green. This would also be great for family gatherings, picnics, etc.
You’re welcome, Kirsten! I appreciate your review.
Hi Kate,
Loved this recipe! I love parsley so added a bunch, and added scallions, carrots, baby bella mushrooms and chopped coconut and MCT oil to the recipe and served it with Quinoa, also divine my itself. Thank you!
You’re welcome, Rini!
I just made this and it is really good, but I felt like it needed a little pop, so I added chopped pepperoncinis. Yum!
Thank you for your review, Kirsten!
Truly enjoyed the salad. It was easy to make, the ingredients are usually in my fridge or pantry, travels well and stays fresh in fridge for a few days.
Will most definitely make again.
Great to hear, Mona!
Made this today. Now have to go shopping and get more ingredients to make more of this salad. Loved it!!!! I did add some chicken and next time will also add fresh grated parmesan cheese. This salad is so versatile.
Happy to hear you loved it, Tracy! Thank you for your review.
Another great salad – will definitely be making this again. Thanks for all the delicious recipes :-)
You’re welcome, Gail! Thank you for sharing.
I’ve made this salad before and absolutely love it!!! It’s awesome. Great flavor and crunch! I’m a bit sensitive to oil so I thought I would try a Chia seed and water slurry in place of oil when I made it today. It turned out great! I’ll be making it more frequently now. Love all your recipes!!!!
Wonderful, Mary!
Would cucumber work in this salad
Sure, you can try it! Let me know what you think.
I’ve made this hundreds of times for lunch meal prep and tonight I brought this for my tennis team end-of-season party. EVERYONE loved it!! I was requested to post the recipe in our group chat. I was short on parsley so did half parsley and half cilantro. Amazing!!!
Great to hear, Nichola!
Delicious, just as written! Thank you for a lovely recipe.
Beautiful and delicious! Thanks for yet another keeper recipe.
I love to hear that, Jeanne!
Absolutely delicious! And this is coming from a junk food junkie!
I love to hear that, Laurie!
Allergic to lemon. If I were to use orange juice or tangerine juice, should I use the same amount as the lemon? And which would you recommend? Or could I use balsamic vinegar? Thanks!
I’m not sure since the flavor is different. You could try less and add more as you see necessary for best taste.
This was delicious and easy! Perfect for a hot summer day. I added feta and some cherry tomatoes, served over salad greens.
Loved this recipe! I made it exactly as recipe said, but took a tiny extra step in that I scrubbed, then zested the lemon with microplane grater into the bowl first. I’m single, so the bowl full lasted a week. It was so nice to have a delicious cold main dish in this hot weather. Theresia
Thank you for this wonderful and easy recipe.
I exchanged cilantro for parsley. It was wonderful. Also, the addition of feta crumbles made it so satisfying.
This is a basic recipe that offers curious alterations for personal tastes.
When I had only a little left, I added it to my tosses salad greens.