This Quinoa Chickpea Salad recipe is bursting with Mediterranean flavors – fresh light and lemony, packed full of nutrients; you’ll want to serve this up all summer long! Healthy, vegan and great for meal prep. Video. 25+ Incredible Chickpea Recipes & 20 Amazing Quinoa Recipes!
Why you’ll love this Quinoa Chickpea Salad Recipe!
Say hello to your new favorite Quinoa Salad! Not only will you love how easy this Quinoa Salad is to make, I know you will fall head over heels in love with the Mediterranean flavors. Quinoa is combined with chickpeas, cucumber, tomatoes, kalamata olives, red onion, fresh dill and loads of parsley, but it’s this incredible dressing that elevates; Preserved Lemon Dressing!
Add a little sumac if you like to give it a sassy punch. The salad can be made ahead and kept for up to 4 days in the fridge, getting better with time. Perfect for meal prep! We think it is kind of perfect. 😉 Add feta if you like or keep it vegan.
Quinoa Chickpea Salad | 60-second video
The best thing is, you probably have everything on hand to make this right now – and please don’t worry if you don’t have preserved lemons (take a peek at the recipe notes) but they do truly elevate here.
Ingredients in Quinoa Chickpea Salad
Lots of fresh ingredients go into this salad- besides chickpeas and quinoa, you’ll need tomatoes, cucumbers, red onion, olives, bell peppers and loads of fresh herbs!
How to Make Quinoa Chickpea Salad
It starts with cooking the quinoa and making the preserved lemon dressing. Preserved lemons, if unfamiliar, are a flavorful Middle Eastern condiment, and in a nutshell, are lemons preserved in salt. Here they are chopped finely and added to the dressing. If you don’t have them- don’t worry- see the recipe notes!
Bookmark this Preserved Lemon Dressing- it’s super tasty!
Cook the quinoa while you prep all the veggies.
Here I’ve used canned chickpeas but feel free to cook from scratch- you’ll need 1 1/2 cups cooked.
Then assemble the quinoa salad, adding all the prepped ingredients to the bowl.
Give a toss with the Preserved Lemon Dressing and taste, adding more salt and lemon, to your liking.
What to serve with This!
- Grilled Chicken Shawarma
- Grilled Tofu
- Baba Ganoush
- Homemade Pita Bread
- Authentic Falafels!
- Tzatziki!
If making this salad ahead, re-taste for salt and lemon before serving. Salad will keep up to 5 days in the fridge.
Enjoy this fresh and happy salad- please leave a rating and a comment below- always appreciated!
xoxo
MORE SALADS YOU MAY LIKE!
Quinoa Chickpea Salad
- Prep Time: 15
- Cook Time: 15
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 6
- Category: salad, vegan salad
- Method: tossed
- Cuisine: Middle Eastern
- Diet: Vegan
Description
This Quinoa Chickpea Salad is made with chickpeas, cucumber, tomato, kalamata olives dill, parsley and Preserved Lemon Dressing. A healthy vegan salad with Middle Eastern flavors that can be made ahead!
Ingredients
Preserved Lemon Dressing
- 1/4 cup preserved lemons, finely chopped (or see notes)
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 2 garlic cloves, finely minced
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon sumac (optional)
Chickpea Quinoa Salad
- 3/4 cup quinoa (dry, uncooked)
- 1 1/2 cups water
- 1 15–ounce can chickpeas, rinsed and drained ( 1 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas)
- 1/2 cup red onion, finely chopped (see notes)
- 1 English cucumber, diced (2 cups)
- 1 bell pepper (yellow is nice) diced
- 1 cup cherry or grape tomatoes, halved ( or chopped radish)
- 1/4 cup kalamata olives, chopped or halved
- 1/2 cup flat-leaf parsley, chopped
- 1/4 cup dill, chopped (or sub mint, or use both!)
- Other optional additions: avocado, feta, radishes
Instructions
Place quinoa, water and pinch of salt in a medium pot, bring to a boil, cover, simmer on low 12-15 minutes until all the water is gone. Uncover, fluff, cool slightly.
Make the dressing, by mixing all in a bowl.
Prep all the veggies. If sensitive to onions, dice, then soak in cold salted water while you chop the rest.
Place the chickpeas, onions, cucumber, bell pepper, tomatoes, olives, dill and parsley to a large bowl. Add the quinoa and dressing and give a good toss.
Taste, adjust salt and lemon to your liking. If making ahead, taste once more right before serving as the quinoa and chickpeas have a tendency to soak up the salt and lemon, so you might want to add a little more.
Notes
If no access to preserved lemons, substitute zest from one whole lemon plus 1/2 teaspoon salt. Add more lemon juice to taste.
Salad will keep 4 days in the fridge.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cup
- Calories: 253
- Sugar: 3.4 g
- Sodium: 607.4 mg
- Fat: 12.8 g
- Saturated Fat: 1.7 g
- Carbohydrates: 30.3 g
- Fiber: 6.1 g
- Protein: 7.5 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
we love quinoa and sometimes get stuck w/ same old, same old…this salad is filling and delicious. The extra benefit of garbanzos is a wonderful way to kick up the fiber content; i don’t usually add cucumber/tomato directly into these types of salads that might be refrigerated overnight – i find those two veggies get soft and unappealing – so I serve them crisp on the side for guests to add. I added more lemon; as we love lemon – and used avocado oil on the first go – then second go i used olive oil – you really cannot beat the taste of a good olive oil. The really great part of this recipe is on the second day (if you have leftovers) you can simply add more veggies of choice and redress. Delicious.
Thanks for the great review Maureen! I like the tip about keeping the cukes and tomatoes on the side.
So great! Even without preserved lemons. We had it for breakfast with eggs today. Yummm. Thank you
So glad you enjoyed Silvia! Appreciate the review. Sounds yummy with eggs!
Delicious recipe for quinoa salad.
Thanks Helena- so happy you like this!