My Favorite Chickpea Salad

Vegetarian and gluten free, this chickpea salad is one of my favorites.

It’s made with cucumbers, onions, dates and olives mixed in a spicy vinaigrette. It’s also great for cooking.

As a vegetarian, chickpeas are one of my favorites!

There’s so much you can do with them. Make hummus, hana masala, add it to burgers and of course, make the most delicious salad.

I’ve eaten a lot of chickpea salad, some good, some just boring. When it comes to salad, I always like to try something new. New spices, new flavors, that makes them interesting?

The chickpea salad I’m sharing with you today is one of my favorites. It has a perfect balance of flavors and is an excellent vegetarian dish. I often eat it for lunch.

When I want to make chickpea salads, I like to start with raw chickpeas. Preserves are fine when I’m in a hurry, but if I can plan ahead, I still like to use raw chickpeas and cook them in the morning. In my opinion, the texture is much better.

You can use a regular pressure cooker or an instant pan, as I did for cooking chickpeas.

Usually when I make gal or some other Indian recipe, I want my chickpeas super tender, and I cook them for 25 minutes on high pressure with an instant pot.

For a salad, however, 15 minutes is sufficient, as a slightly firmer consistency is preferable.

Why does this chickpea salad work?

It’s not for nothing that this is my favorite salad. There are so many flavors, and they all go so well together.

Crisp onions and cucumbers, sweet dates, salty olives.

The vinaigrette is a little hot and a little sweet, and the peppers and oregano give the salad the perfect touch.

This salad is very easy to make, it only takes a few ingredients, and best of all, you can prepare it in advance. I usually make an extra one, and that’s then a good breakfast for the next two or three days.

So if you’re looking for an appetizer salad, this is definitely the one.

And by the way, the salad is also vegan, gluten-free and nut-free. So it’s perfect for all dietary restrictions.

Ingredients

Chicken pox: I like to use raw chickpeas whenever possible. So I soak them overnight and cook them in the morning.

I used 1 cup of raw chickpeas for this recipe. If you want to use canned chickpeas, that’s about 2 3/4 cups of cooked chickpeas.

Onion and cucumber: These are my favorite ingredients. They add a good crunch and freshness to the salad.

Olives: For this recipe, I used a mixture of green and black olives. I bought a small box of Italian olives at the grocery store, and I used that in the recipe.

You can eat as many olives as you want.

Dates : My favorite ingredient in this recipe is the medjool date. You can use more data here if you want, I thought 3 was a good number.

As an alternative to dates, other sweet dried fruits can be used, such as. B. Apricots or even raisins.

Oregano: Dried oregano is what I used here. You can use any other dried herbs you like such as thyme, marjoram, etc.

Peppers: This herb adds a bit of heat to the salad. Since we have several sweet elements, it helps to keep the flavors balanced.

Garlic powder: You can very well use fresh chopped garlic if you don’t have garlic powder on hand.

Parsley: Fresh parsley is used here as a garnish. I really like the parsley here, but you can substitute with cilantro if you like.

Composition of the dress : Olive oil, red wine vinegar, Dijon mustard and maple syrup were used for the dressing. You can customize all these ingredients to suit your taste.

If you prefer a sweeter vinaigrette, add more maple syrup, if you prefer a stronger mustard flavor, add more Dijon mustard.

You can make a large amount of this salad and keep it in the fridge, it easily keeps for 3 days. You can even take it on a picnic and pack it in lunch boxes.

Method

Soak the chickpeas overnight in 3 cups of water. In the morning, drain the chicken, rinse it and put it in an instant pan with 2 to 3 cups of water. Boil under high pressure for 15 minutes. Release the pressure naturally.

You can also use 2 3/4 cups of canned chickpeas.

1- Put the cooked chickpeas in a bowl. Add sliced onions, cucumbers, olives and dates.

2- Add the dried oregano, paprika, salt and pepper.

3- In another pot or bowl, make the vinaigrette by mixing the olive oil, red wine vinegar, Dijon mustard and maple syrup. Stir until well blended.

4- Pour the vinaigrette over the salad and stir until well blended.

Add freshly chopped parsley and stir. You can serve this chickpea salad right away, but I like to refrigerate it covered for 20-30 minutes before serving. This helps to bind the flavors together.

If you’ve tried this chickpea salad recipe, don’t forget to write it down! You can also follow me on Facebook and Instagram to see what’s new in my kitchen!