I love bright and colorful salads on warm summer days. This salad is packed with crunchy red and yellow bell peppers, cooling cucumbers, bright cherry tomatoes, red onion for extra crunch and flavor, fresh herbs, and of course cooked chickpeas! My favorite part? Is the crumbled feta that goes on top, and of course, the simple salad dressing. You may have noticed that on Little Sunny Kitchen I share lots of Mediterranean inspired recipes, which means lots of cucumber tomato recipes, bell peppers, fresh herbs, and high-quality extra virgin olive oil. And even though this recipe is so simple, it is a family favorite so I couldn’t just not share. If you like this one, you should also try my Pearl Couscous Salad and Fattoush Salad with crispy pita croutons! This salad is what I bring to potlucks as it’s so easy to make in large batches, and it’s perfect for making ahead.
How to Make Mediterranean Chickpea Salad
All you need is 15 minutes of your time, and a handful of ingredients to make this delicious salad!
The Ingredients
This salad is very versatile, and you can use any vegetables that you have available so feel free to change things up a little. You can use regular tomatoes instead of cherry tomatoes, yellow onion instead of red, and leave out the bell peppers if you don’t like them. Make sure that you use cooked chickpeas, either soak and cook dried chickpeas or just use canned for convenience. If buying canned chickpeas, try to get ones that say “low sodium”, if you can’t find them, then just make sure to rinse the chickpeas to get rid of the excess sodium. Use feta cheese if you’re ok with a vegetarian diet, and leave it out if you’re vegan. Avoid buying pre-crumbled feta cheese, as these things are terrible. Buy a whole block of feta cheese, and crumble it with your hands.
The Directions
First, make the dressing. In a small jug or bowl, mix together the olive oil, lemon juice, crushed garlic, oregano, basil, salt, and pepper. Set aside. Prep all of the veg, then add to a bowl. Pour the dressing over the vegetables, chickpeas and half of the crumbled feta and give everything a toss. Garnish with the rest of the crumbled feta cheese, and serve!
Top Tips
Don’t add too much salt to this salad, as the feta cheese is quite salty. Feel free to add pitted and chopped olives if you like. If you’re cooking the chickpeas from dried, then make sure not to overcook them as they’ll start breaking apart and won’t have a great texture.
How to Serve Chickpea Salad
On its own, straight from the bowl. As a side salad with grilled chicken tenders, chicken kabobs, or grilled portobello mushrooms. As a topping/filling for baked potatoes on the grill. In warmed up pita bread to make a Mediterranean Chickpea Salad sandwich along with hummus, baba ganoush, or muhammara dip.
Storing Tips
Store this Mediterranean Chickpea Salad in a sealed container in the fridge for up to 3 days. I don’t recommend freezing this salad. To make ahead, I recommend keeping the salad dressing in a jar and dress the salad right before serving. Luckily, you can make this Mediterranean chickpea salad during anytime of the year, and it will taste really good. I tend to make more salads during the summer, but I can’t live without salads during other seasons because salads are everything! For more tasty salad recipes, try my Caesar salad that I always make from scratch, the BEST Caprese salad, Kale Salad with Lemon Vinaigrette, Shrimp Cobb salad, ramen noodle salad, and my favorite Greek Orzo salad! © Little Sunny Kitchen
