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This Greek chickpea salad with cucumber, tomatoes, and olives is healthy, easy to make, vegan, high in protein, and a real crowd pleaser! Let’s just say a perfect summer salad!
Do you love chickpeas AND Greek salad? Then this combination will blow your mind! It’s the ultimate combination of both. It’s undeniably delicious.
Cooked chickpeas tossed with tomatoes, cucumber, olives, red bell pepper, red onion, parsley, and a zingy dressing. The Greek pasta salad dressing is a light dressing with extra virgin olive oil, red wine vinegar, oregano, and a few more spices to taste.
It’s basically a variation of this super-healthy Greek salad, simply add cooked chickpeas!
I love how fresh this vegan chickpea salad tastes. And it’s a welcome change to the well-known summer salads. It’s packed with fresh vegetables, healthy, vegan, light, juicy, and super quick to make! Serve it as a side dish, with grilled vegetables, or as a light summer dinner!
You can make it fresh or prepare it one day in advance. It even slightly enhances the flavor if you let it sit for a bit before serving.
Advantages of Chickpeas
Chickpeas, also known as garbanzo beans, are super healthy and should have a place on your weekly meal plan. They contain a lot of protein and fiber, are low in fat, and leave you with a long-lasting feeling of fullness.
Chickpeas are naturally gluten-free and, therefore, an excellent and even healthier alternative to pasta or other grains, which are often used in summer salads.
Chickpeas are also very versatile.
These are one of my favorite chickpea recipes:
To make this salad, you need to use cooked chickpeas. The fastest and easiest way is to buy them already cooked.
If you prefer all things homemade, cook them yourself. In this case, you need to plan one day ahead of time. Soak them overnight in water and cook them according to the package instructions before adding them to the salad.
Seed Your Cucumbers
To prevent the salad from becoming too watery and tasting bland, I recommend seeding the cucumber. Cucumber seeds consist mainly of water, which we do not necessarily want in this salad.
Seeding Cucumbers is super simple:
- Cut the cucumber in half lengthwise.
- Spoon out the seeds using a spoon. → This works best with a small spoon with sharp edges.
- Ready! Chop the cucumber into small cubes!
Tip: It is not necessary to peel the cucumber. But if you prefer to do so, go ahead and peel it.
The Best Olives
An important ingredient of this chopped Greek salad are the olives! They give this salad a unique flavor and add some extra saltiness.
But not all olives do taste the same, and there are certainly some huge differences in quality. To make the best out of this salad, I highly recommend using Kalamata olives! Those are the best ones you can get and my personal favorite.
I always choose Kalamata olives over every other type of olives. They have a dark, slightly purple color, and the taste is just astonishing.
But hey, I get that everybody has another taste. So if you happened to have another favorite type of olives, go with them. Dark olives tend to go better with any kind of Greek salad than green olives.
Make sure to buy already pitted olives. This saves you the tedious process of pitting.
Aline’s Tip: You do not have to wash the olives. The saltiness gives the salad a fabulous taste.
Greek Chickpea Salad Recipe – Tips & Tricks
Making this Greek chickpea salad is undeniable easy! → Make sure to check out the recipe video to see how easy it is!
Can I prepare this salad in advance? Absolutely! This salad is perfectly suitable for meal prep. Store it in an airtight container and keep it refrigerated. Take the salad half an hour before serving out of the fridge.
How long does it keep fresh? For a good 3-4 days, if stored in the refrigerator.
Do you like feta? Add a handful of chopped or crumbled feta to the salad. Use this vegan feta cheese recipe to make it vegan!
Is there an ingredient in this salad you don’t like? Leave it out or replace it with any other salad ingredients you like.
Which parsley should I use? It tastes best with Italian flat-leaf parsley. But you can also use curly parsley if that’s the only one you have available. No big deal!
Do you like sun-dried tomatoes? Feel free to add some chopped sun-dried tomatoes to this salad.
More Salad Recipes You’ll Love:
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📖 Recipe
Greek Chickpea Salad
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Ingredients
Salad
- 1 cup (150 g) cooked chickpeas
- 1 large tomato chopped
- ½ cucumber seeded & chopped
- ¼ bell pepper color of choice, chopped
- ½ cup (75 g) Kalamata olives pitted & halved
- ½ small red onion finely chopped
- ½ cup Italian Parsley flat-leaf, finely chopped
Dressing
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tbsp red wine vinegar or lemon juice
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- ½ small garlic clove pressed or minced
- ½ tsp maple syrup
- ½ tsp dijon mustard
- ¼ tsp red pepper flakes optional
- black pepper and salt to taste
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients for the salad in a large serving bowl.
- Mix all ingredients for the dressing in a small bowl.
- Drizzle the dressing over the salad and toss until well combined.
Notes
- Seed Cucumber: Cucumbers contain a large amount of water which can make a salad watery and therefore bland. To avoid that, seed the cucumber prior to chopping it. The easiest way to seed a cucumber is if you spoon out the seeds using a small spoon (preferably with sharp edges).
- Olives: Kalamata olives are one of the best and most flavorful olives you can get. Feel free to substitute with other olives you like. I always buy them pitted. No need to wash the olives, the saltiness ads some extra flavor.
- Salad Variations: Add chopped sun-dried tomatoes or chopped/crumbled feta cheese. Use this vegan tofu feta cheese to make it vegan.
- Leftovers & Make Ahead: This salad can be stored for up to two days in the fridge. Store it in an airtight container and let it sit for 30 minutes at room temperature before serving.
