This light, lemony Chickpea Quinoa Salad is bursting with Middle Eastern flavors (preserved lemons + sumac!) and trust me when I say, you’ll want to serve this up all summer long. Healthy, vegan and super flavorful, this salad satisfies! Video!
Meet your new favorite salad! Not only will love how easy Chickpea Quinoa Salad is, I know you will fall in love with the flavors. Chickpeas and quinoa are tossed with cucumber, tomatoes, kalamatas, red onion, fresh dill and parsley and tossed in a very flavorful Preserved Lemon Dressing. Tart sumac (optional) gives it a sassy little punch.
Lemony Chickpea Quinoa 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.
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.
Book mark 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 just assemble the salad.
Give a toss with the Preserved Lemon Dressing and taste, adding more salt and lemon, to your liking.
If making this salad ahead, make sure to re-taste for salt and lemon before serving.
Pair this with other Middle Eastern Dishes:
OK. Hope you are hanging in.
xoxo
Lemony Chickpea Quinoa 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
Lemony Chickpea Quinoa Salad with 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 3-4 days in the fridge.
Keywords: chickpea salad, middle eastern salad, chickpea quinoa salad, vegan chickpea salad, preserved lemon dressing, vegan salad recipe, preserved lemon recipes
This was the first recipe I ever made from Feasting at Home, and I made it again recently as a side for a cookout. It is so delicious and such a crowd pleaser!
★★★★★
Thanks Kathleen-glad you enjoyed this!
Fabulous salad! Didn’t have preserved Lemon, so I used lemon zest and lots of juice, and skipped the Sumac. Will for sure do this again, many times.
This is an outrageous salad! One I am sure to make again. Instead of a lemony dressing, I substituted olive oil, small amount, and Colavita Balsamic vinegar.
★★★★★
Glad you enjoyed it!
Looks delicious. I will try it soon.
★★★★★
Omg, this salad is so delicious! The combination of flavours is dynamic! So good!
★★★★★
Thanks Wendy!
I will make this as often as possible. It is soo delicious! Fresh summer vegetables. Preserved lemons are my new favorite ingredient. I have shared this recipe with all of my friends.
★★★★★
Appreciate this!
The preserved lemon and sumac really make the flavor POP! So worth the effort to use these ingredients.
★★★★★
Just made this, so healthy and delicious, perfect thing to pack for a work lunch!
★★★★★
I made this today and it was delicious. Because of food allergies, I had to make two versions and leave some of the ingredients out in one version, but both were delicious. We used quinoa, bulgar and black rice mixed as the grains. We’ll definitely make it again.
★★★★★
Perfect Michelle- thanks so much!
This hit all,the right spots for my family. I’m a vegetarian and so is one of my granddaughters. My son loves preserved lemons, the wife of one of my grandsons loves quinoa. Plus we all love chickpeas. I had a very happy family. It was delicious!
We tried this with tri-color quinoa last week and loved it! So fresh and lemony, and avocado and feta seal the deal. Thanks for another healthy delicious salad!
I’m not a huge fan of quinoa but I plan to try this recipe because everything else looks so darn tasty!
It was a hit even for my picky carnivorous family. Will put in the rotation this summer!