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, gluten-free, and great for meal prep. Video.
Why you’ll love this Quinoa Salad
Bright and punchy, this quinoa salad is a flavor explosion! Full of fresh, healthy ingredients and Mediterranean flavors, it’s one you’ll want to make over and over again. Quinoa is combined with chickpeas, cucumber, tomatoes, kalamata olives, red onion, fresh dill, and loads of parsley, but it’s the incredible preserved lemon dressing that elevates it!
This was our “go-to” quinoa salad in our catering business, always a hit with our clients, and such a crowd pleaser! The salad can be made ahead and stored in the fridge for up to 4 days, actually improving with time. Perfect for meal prep! 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.
Quinoa Chickpea Salad Ingredients
- Quinoa – dry uncooked white quinoa, red quinoa, or tricolored quinoa
- Canned chickpeas- drained, or feel free to cook from scratch!
- Fresh Veggies- red onion, English Cucumber, red or yellow bell pepper, cherry or grape tomatoes
- Kalamata olives, pitted, chopped or halved
- Herbs – flat-leaf parsley and dill ( or sub fresh mint)
- Optional additions: avocado, feta, radishes
The Lemon Dressing!
- Extra-Virgin Olive Oil– for richness and polyphenols!
- Fresh lemon juice– fresh lemon juice is a must here! Don’t use bottled.
- Fresh garlic cloves- for a punchy flavor, finely minced
- Salt and black Pepper
- Optional additions: sumac and preserved lemon ( or sub lemon zest)
How to Make Quinoa Salad
Step 1. It starts with cooking the quinoa- you can use this guide to cook the quinoa.
Step 2. Make the lemon dressing. Today we are using preserved lemons to make this even more punchy and flavorful- but no worries, you can leave them out! 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!
Step 3. Prep your veggies and herbs while the quinoa is cooking!
Step 4. Assemble! Then assemble the quinoa salad, adding the chickpeas, veggies and herbs to the bowl. Give a toss with the Lemon Dressing and taste, adding more salt and lemon to your liking. Sprinkle with a little sumac if you like and fresh herbs!
Serving Suggestions
This salad pairs well with Mediterranean dishes or Middle Eastern flavors! Here are a few ideas:
- Grilled Chicken Shawarma
- Mediterranean Stuffed Peppers
- Sheet Pan Mediterranean Chicken
- Grilled Tofu
- Baba Ganoush
- Homemade Pita Bread
- Authentic Falafels
- Tzatziki
Storage
This Quinoa Salad will keep up to 4 days in an airtight container in the fridge. If making this salad ahead, re-taste for salt and lemon right before serving and quinoa can soak up some of the salt.
I hope enjoy this fresh, vibrant salad- please leave a rating and a comment below- always appreciated! 💛 Sylvia
MORE Favorite SALADS YOU MAY LIKE!
- Thai Quinoa Salad
- Carrot Quinoa Salad
- Southwest Black Bean Quinoa Salad
- Quinoa Asparagus Salad (aka Spring Tabouli)
- Moroccan Quinoa Salad with Blood Oranges, Quinoa, Olives, Almonds and Mint
- Grilled Corn Salad
- Blueberry Salad
Watch how to make Quinoa Salad
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
- 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)
- 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 ingredients in a bowl. You can make this up to 3 days ahead and store in a jar in the fridge.
- 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 cooled quinoa and the 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
No preserved lemons? Substitute lemon zest from one medium lemon plus 1/2 teaspoon of 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
Can’t wait to make this – looks delicious
Never thought of quinoa and chickpeas as a main course. This recipe is amazing.
One of many wonderful recipes. It shows that cooking meatless dishes can be creative, tasty and healthy.
So delicious and easy to make as well -thankyou
amazing
The flavors, textures and colours in this salad are incredible – thank you!
I am always looking for new recipes. You would think that at 70, I would have enough recipes. Nope. I am trying to get away from the heavy meat and potato meals I grew up with. My taste buds crave adventure, and my body cannot handle dairy. Hubby is now pre-diabetic, and we are changing our lifestyle away from the heavy meat-laden meals of our youth.
I found your Lemony Chickpea Quinoa Salad and it really sounded good. I made it for the two of us, and no surprise, it was delicious! One recipe fed us for three meals since that was all we had, a complete meal.
Daughter’s family came down for dinner yesterday. She brought her high-school sons and three college students along and I made this dish. At first, they looked at it like, “What is quinoa?” “I’m not crazy about chickpeas.” One grandson knew about quinoa and explained. Two of the “sons” are international students, one from Afghanistan and one from China. They looked a bit askance at the salad to begin with, afterall, there was no lamb and no rice, but they knew to trust me when it comes to food because I cook with them when it is their turn to make dinner.
Despite the initial concern, when they had some, the five boys and Dad, they all had multiple helpings!!! I had tripled the recipe since there would be nine of us, assuming that they would like it; there was at least an entire recipe’s worth left because we had other things for dinner, too. Did I get any leftovers? No, they took it all home with them. Daughter tried it and enjoyed the first few bites, but then stopped- because she does not like parsley. So, she will make it at home – minus the parsley. (I even forgot the cucumbers!)
This recipe is now a family favorite! Thank you!
Thanks so much Sue, really appreciate you sharing!!!
Loved it! i am also loving the preserved lemons…so yummy.
I just discovered your site a few days ago, and and was enticed to try this recipe first. I omitted sumac and olives, as I didn’t have either on hand. The dressing was so delicious, and made good use of the preserved lemons that had been lurking about the back of the fridge just waiting for inspiration to strike. I served along simple pan fried halibut. Absolutely delicious and loved by the whole family. There are so many more amazing looking recipes to try, I just might have to give up my day job and cook fulltime! Thank you Sylvia!
My husband loves this salad! He even offered to dice the vegetables if I make this again. We just finished up the last of It a couple minutes ago.
haha, love it!
We are on a feasting at home frenzy here! Last night Summer Tomato Risotto which was completely delicious with not a grain of risotto rice left and tonight this beauty! Added a few extra bits that I had left in the fridge such as roasted aubergine and courgette and finished it with toasted almonds and pomegranates. I knew there was a reason why I didn’t chuck that ancient jar of sumac away!
The thing I love about your recipes is that they are so versatile and ever adapting.
Love them! Jane
thanks Jane!
I love this quinoa salad. Made more than I could eat in a few days, so added a bit of leftover grilled chicken and feta, then stuffed peppers. Was great even after being cooked. Made a great dinner with a green salad. Thank you!
THIS IS SOOOOOO GOOD!This was meant to be, I randomly found some ground Sumac in bulk jars and was like… oooo… this is pretty, lol. (Great benefits too!!) Of course, I figured I had enough hummus, so did NOT get chickpeas, (the one time I dont have a back-up can either, right?!) BUT may add them after a store run tomorrow…tonight I tossed in some walnuts! VERY good also! (almonds would be great too, so I might just opt out of the Chicapeas all together).
What about yellow tomatoes?
This salad is so delicious and refreshing. I added a bed of greens and sprouted mung beans. Truly felt nourished. Thank you for all your beautiful recipes. 90% of my cooking is inspired by your recipes.
Thanks so much Maria- you are so kind!
Our second Feasting at Home salad this week! Besides tasting really wonderful, it looked so healthy and inviting, too. Looking forward to making it again. I didn’t have preserved lemons on hand, so used the zest, salt and extra lemon juice, which worked well for us. Thank you for another great recipe!
Awesome- glad you liked it! 🙌
Hi Sylvia,
I made preserved lemons so that I can made this salad for the upcoming weekend! The preserved lemons were a bit salty (obviously). But for use in this recipe, do I need to rinse before chopping & including in the dish?
Hopefully you can respond soon!
Do not rinse, add all the juices too.
This salad is so fresh and the different textures really make it delicious. My whole family (including 3 teenage boys) loves it.
This was so delicious! I made it with lemon zest/salt and substituted cilantro for parsley. It’s going to be a staple for me in the hot summer months for sure!
Thanks so much and so happy you liked it! 👏
Thank you so much for this wonderful recipe. It was easy to modify to address FODMAP and low sodium diet restrictions while still maintaining the wonderful flavor (red onion and garlic used to infuse flavor but did not chop into salad; less salt and no olives. ) making it again soon. Keeps well in the fridge; great light lunch while working from home.
Glad it worked for you Yolanda!
Absolutely delicious… and beautiful colors! My husband was pleasantly surprised that he was full and satiated with a vegetarian meal… he loved it!
Mine too. Glad he liked it!!!
Wow what a fantastic recipe. So easy to make and tastes really fresh and lively. Summer on a plate!
Thanks Wendy! Glad you enjoyed it!
This is beautiful! I love that gorgeous white salad bowl, too. Where did you find it?
Just at a local store here in Santa Barbara.
And I was just lamenting what to do with all of the overflowing dill from my garden. Your recipe is the perfect solution! Tasty and timely! Made it with the zest option and it’s a treat.
How long will this keep in the fridge?
3-4 days~!
Just made it! So flavorful.