If you’re looking for a really delicious salad that is perfect to meal prep then look no further. This Creamy Chickpea Salad makes 4 serves for 4 tasty and healthy lunches. With loads of wholesome ingredients like chickpeas, cucumbers, red onions and capsicum, all tossed in my Greek Yoghurt Dressing and topped with golden croutons, you’re going to love this one!
If you love this salad then you might like to try my Corn Tuna Salad with Creamy Dill Dressing or my Mexican Chicken Salad.
What’s to Love About this Creamy Chickpea Salad
- great to meal prep – no soggy veggies here, prep this salad ahead of time for easy grab-and-go lunches.
- serve as a side dish or main meal – there is enough in this salad to make it a complete meal but it also works great as a side as well. Serve it on the side for your next weeknight meal or bring it to a bbq.
- allergy friendly – this recipe is gluten-free, nut-free, egg-free and can easily be made dairy-free.
- quick & easy – this is a really simple recipe and is very quick to throw together (make it in a total time of under 30 minutes).
- no mayo – a lot of creamy salad dressings use mayo whereas this one is completely mayo free and based on Greek yogurt.
Ingredients Notes & Substitutions
This chickpea salad recipe is made using easy to find, simple ingredients. Below is a list of all of the ingredients as well as possible substitutions and ingredients notes.
- chickpeas – also known as garbanzo beans, I’ve used canned chickpeas to make this salad even quicker to make. Drain and rinse the chickpeas before using. If you prefer to cook up your own chickpeas, that is completely fine! You will need about 3 cups of cooked chickpeas.
- Lebanese cucumbers – the cucumber is cut into approximately 1cm cubes. You can use your preferred variety of cucumber if you can’t get Lebanese cucumbers.
- red capsicum – also known as red bell pepper. Red capsicum can be swapped for yellow or green capsicum or another crunchy vegetable like celery (3 stalks celery would be perfect). You could also swap for cherry tomatoes.
- red onion – red onion can be swapped for thinly sliced green onions for a lower fodmap option.
- green beans – I’ve added green beans in for some extra fibre and crunch. Feel free to swap for thinly sliced snow peas or sugar snap peas. In this recipe the green beans are briefly blanched so they are still a vibrant green and fresh and crunchy.
- fresh parsley – I’ve used flat leaf parsley, also known as continental parsley. You can swap parsley for other fresh herbs like fresh dill, basil or mint.
- bread – I’ve used gluten free bread, which tend to be smaller slices than regular bread. For this reason, if you’re using gluten free bread then you may need 1-2 more slices. I’ve used 6 slices in total but for regular bread you would just need 4.
- spice mix – to coat the croutons I’ve used onion powder, garlic powder, sea salt flakes, cracked black pepper and dried thyme.
- extra virgin olive oil – always choose extra virgin olive oil as it is less processed than other olive oils and contains more nutrients and antioxidants. They also provide healthy fats (monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fat).
Creamy dressing
For the creamy dressing I’ve used my 5-Minute Greek Yoghurt Dressing. See the post for the instructions. For the dressing you will need:
- greek yoghurt (or unsweetened coconut yoghurt as a dairy free substitute)
- lemon juice
- extra virgin olive oil
- dried oregano
- fresh mint
- sea salt flakes
- minced garlic
How to Make Creamy Chickpea Salad
See below for how to make this easy chickpea salad recipe.
Make the croutons
To a medium sized bowl add the cubed bread, olive oil, onion powder, garlic powder, salt, pepper and dried thyme and toss to combine. Tip out onto a baking tray and spread out evenly. Place into the oven and bake for 7 minutes or until golden brown.
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Make the dressing
Add all of the salad dressing ingredients to a medium bowl and whisk or stir until well combined.
Assemble the salad
Add the diced cucumber, capsicum and red onion to a large bowl or salad bowl along with the chickpeas, blanched green beans and parsley. Top with the creamy dressing and toss to combine. Lastly, add the croutons and then serve.
Tips
Prep ahead
If you are prepping this salad in advance for lunches throughout the week, I recommend leaving the croutons off and storing them in seperate airtight containers to add to the salad before eating. This is just to keep them crunchy. If you don’t mind soggy croutons then it doesn’t matter when you add them!
Protein boost
You might like to add some extra protein to this salad. Per serve this salad contains approximately 12 grams of protein so to make this salad a complete meal, I would recommend choosing one of the below options:
- boiled eggs (2 per serve)
- tuna (95 gram tin per serve)
- cooked chicken (approximately 125 grams)
Variations
- wraps or lettuce wraps – use either large iceberg lettuce leaves or your favourite wraps and fill with the chickpea salad.
- vegan chickpea salad – to make this salad vegan simply swap the Greek yoghurt in the dressing for your preferred vegan yoghurt. I prefer to use unsweetened natural coconut yoghurt.
- feta – crumble your favourite feta cheese into the salad before tossing in the dressing.
Storage
Store leftover salad in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
Creamy Chickpea Salad
Equipment
- Large mixing bowl or salad bowl
- Medium Mixing Bowl
- Whisk
- Sharp knife
- Chopping Board
- medium baking tray
Ingredients
- 2 x 400 gram tins chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- small handful flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped
- ¼ medium red onion, diced
- 2 Lebanese cucumbers, diced into 1cm pieces
- 1 red capsicum, core removed, diced
- 100 grams green beans, cut into 1 cm lengths
- 1 portion 5 minute Greek Yoghurt Dressing
Croutons
- 6 slices bread of choice, cut into 2cm cubes
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ¼ teaspoon Italian herbs
- ½ teaspoon sea salt flakes
- freshly cracked black pepper, to taste
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180°C.
- To make the croutons, add the cubed bread to a large bowl. Top with the onion powder, garlic powder, Italian herbs, salt, pepper and olive oil and toss to coat evenly. Tip the bread out onto the baking tray and spread out evenly, making sure to scrape out any seasoning stuck to the bowl and sprinkling it over the croutons. Place into the oven to bake for 7 minutes or until golden and crisp.
- Make the salad dressing.
- Add the cut up green beans to a heat proof jug and top with boiling water. Carefully tip out into a heat proof strainer and run under cold water before straining.
- To a large salad bowl add the chickpeas, parsley, diced onion, cucumber, capsicum and green beans. Add the croutons and then pour over the dressing. Toss everything well to combine.
Notes
To make gluten-free
- Choose your favourite gluten free bread.
- Make sure all of your herbs and spices are gluten free.
To make dairy free
- Use unsweetened natural coconut yoghurt instead of Greek yoghurt in the dressing.
Meal prep tips
- Don’t add the croutons in advance. Instead, store in an airtight container and add to the salad the day of consuming.
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