Easy Chickpea Salad

This chickpea salad recipe is one of those dishes we just keep coming back to. The lemon and dill vinaigrette is so good, we never get tired of it.

With loads of fresh dill and our easy lemon vinaigrette, this chickpea salad brings all the Mediterranean vibes. It’s fresh, full of flavor, and those chickpeas make it hearty enough for a quick lunch or dinner.

If you’ve been following us for a while, you already know we’re big fans of chickpeas (just look at all our other chickpea recipes!). This was actually one of the first salads we ever shared, and it’s still a regular in our kitchen. If you’re as into chickpeas as we are, you’ll want to try our cauliflower chickpea salad and our smashed chickpea salad (which makes the best sandwich!).

Key Ingredients

• Chickpeas (Garbanzo Beans): For the easiest salad, use drained canned chickpeas. If you prefer cooking them from scratch, we also have this recipe for cooking chickpeas!
• Cucumber: I love the crunch of cucumber in this and use thin-skinned varieties like Hot House, English, or Persian cucumbers. For regular garden cucumbers, peel the thick skin and scoop out any large seeds.
• Tomato: Fresh tomatoes add color and sweetness to this salad. Use your favorite variety and chop them into bite-size pieces.
• Feta: Briny feta cheese makes this salad so delicious, but you can substitute other cheeses like creamy goat cheese or crumbly Cojita cheese. Leave it out for a vegan chickpea salad (it’s still incredible without the cheese).
• Fresh Dill: I use a lot of fresh dill in this salad. If you don’t have dill on hand, other tender herbs like mint, parsley, or a blend of herbs work wonders, too.
• Lemon Dressing: For the dressing, I use a similar lemony vinaigrette in our couscous salad and cauliflower salad. You will combine fresh lemon juice, olive oil, mustard, honey, salt, and pepper. It’s incredibly easy and tastes fantastic!

Find the full recipe with measurements below.

How to Make Our Favorite Chickpea Salad

Tip 1: Make the dressing first. With most of our salad recipes, we tell you to make the dressing first, right in the bowl you plan to serve your salad in. That way, you can just pile the rest of the ingredients right in (no other dirty dishes necessary!).

This lemon dressing is similar to our lemon vinaigrette and comes together in a minute. Whisk lemon juice, olive oil, mustard, honey (or maple syrup), salt, and pepper. When you taste it, it should be pretty zippy.

Tip 2: Build your salad from there. Now that you have your dressing, you can pile in the remaining chickpea salad ingredients. The drained and rinsed chickpeas, cucumber, tomato, chopped herbs, and, if you’re adding it, crumbled feta cheese.

I love buying block feta cheese sold in the brine so I can crumble it over the salad, leaving some larger crumbles intact.

Serving Suggestions

We often make this easy salad ahead of time for meal prep and enjoy it for lunch during the week. It works well as a side or a light meal. If you want to add more protein, try serving it with grilled chicken breast, cilantro lime butter shrimp, poached salmon, lemon dill baked salmon, garlic shrimp scampi, or salmon patties made from canned salmon.

This recipe is great for potlucks, especially in the warmer months. It pairs nicely with other fresh, cold salads like corn salad, Caprese salad, cucumber salad, panzanella salad, and Italian pasta salad. It’s also excellent on a mezze platter with homemade hummus, creamy tzatziki, pickled carrots, and falafel. Don’t forget the homemade flatbread!

More Easy Bean Salads

• Bean Salad (with three kinds of beans)
• White Bean Salad with Prosciutto
• Black Bean and Quinoa Salad
• Black Bean and Corn Salad
• Tahini Kale and White Bean Salad