I had a jar of cooked chickpeas in the pantry staring at me for a while… today I decided to use it to make a quick and fresh dish without any fuss.
This Mediterranean chickpea salad is perfect as a starter (perhaps for a light dinner), but it’s also great as a quick main course when you don’t feel like cooking but want to eat well. This salad is also perfect to prepare in advance and keep in the fridge.
I love chickpeas; they are my favorite legumes and on the blog you’ll already find many recipes and tasty ideas to use them in the kitchen, from quick dishes to richer preparations.
Variations and delicious ideas
1) Higher-protein version
Add hard-boiled eggs sliced into wedges or canned tuna in water, well drained, and it becomes a very filling main dish.
2) Version without feta, since Greek cheese isn’t always appreciated
Replace the feta with cubed mozzarella or leave the cheese out entirely: it will still be fresh and delicious.
3) Crunchier version
Add small cubes of toasted bread (croutons) or a handful of seeds (sesame or pumpkin) to give crunch.
4) Even more Mediterranean
Add sundried tomatoes cut into strips and a few capers: this immediately gives a bolder flavor.
If you love chickpeas too, below I leave you a few other recipes with these legumes that are already on the blog:
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Budget-friendly
- Preparation time: 15 Minutes
- Portions: 4 People
- Cooking methods: No-cook
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas
- 1/4 cup pitted Taggiasca olives (pitted)
- 1 cucumber
- 2 tomatoes
- 1 red bell pepper
- 1 red onion
- 2/3 cup feta
- 1 cucumber
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- to taste parsley (freshly chopped)
- to taste extra virgin olive oil
- to taste oregano
- to taste salt
- to taste pepper
Tools
- Cutting boards
- Knives
- Bowls
Steps
First, rinse and drain the chickpeas.
Peel and then slice the cucumber into rounds, dice the tomatoes, cut the red bell pepper into strips, and slice the red onion thinly.In a large bowl, add the cooked chickpeas and then combine the cucumbers, tomatoes, red bell pepper, red onion and the black olives.
Roughly crumble the Greek feta with your fingers over the salad.Prepare the dressing by making a vinaigrette: mix the extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, oregano, salt and pepper.
Pour this dressing over the salad and toss gently.
Final touch: sprinkle with freshly chopped parsley before serving.It’s a colorful, fresh, nutritious and super easy salad!
Enjoy your meal! Annalisa
I invite you to also try this simple Moroccan salad
read → https://blog.giallozafferano.it/asilannablu/ricetta-insalata-marocchina/
Storage
This chickpea salad keeps in the refrigerator in a tightly closed container for 1-2 days.
The recommendation is to add the feta and parsley at the last minute so everything stays fresher and more flavorful.
