My “go-to” healthy lunch: Middle Eastern Salad Tacos with hummus (or baba ganoush or tahini sauce) a mound of lemony salad greens, topped with optional spiced chickpeas, fresh herbs and scallions. FAST, Vegan & oh sooooooooo Delicious!
Here’s a quick little meal that I often make when I want to eat a little lighter and perhaps help reverse the effects of the holidays. I’ve been eating versions of this since I was a kid! Middle Eastern Salad Tacos.
What are Salad Tacos?
We call them “salad tacos” because they really are mostly salad. Yes, I embellish them at times with spiced warm chickpeas and add hummus, tahini sauce or baba ganoush to make them more hearty. But truthfully, sometimes I just use the warm tortillas as a container for the salad, especially at lunchtime.
Growing up, I would wrap my mother’s amazing parsley-laden tabouli in warm tortillas with a little tahini sauce….so so good! If you’ve ever made the Israeli Salad here on my blog, this is another thing that ends up in a tortilla at lunchtime, with a little smear of hummus to hold it all together.
How to make the best Salad Tacos!
- Use warm, slightly toasty tortillas. I usually just place them in our toaster oven ( or grill them over our gas stove burner).
- The Salad must be really flavorful and juicy and lemony – with a good balance between the lemon and salt.
- Spread something creamy- like hummus, baba ganoush, labneh, tzatziki or a mashed avocado on the tortilla to hold it all together!
Fresh and clean food, full of flavor and leafy greens, Salad Tacos are one of my favorite meals!!!
You could easily make this for a group and leave everything separate for quests to assemble on their own. You could add roasted chicken breast or even my Chicken Shawarma for any meat-eaters.
If going light and lean, simple serve the salad in the warm tortillas.
To assemble, just spread the warm tortillas with your favorite hummus, white bean dip (or baba ganoush or lemony tahini sauce ) and top with the chickpeas. Then pile on the salad.
Sprinkle with fresh herbs and scallions and Dukkah if you like!
Hope you enjoy these light and healthy Middle Eastern Salad Tacos!
More tacos you may enjoy
- Rajas Tacos
- Cauliflower Tacos with Mole Sauce (Vegan!)
- Jackfruit Tacos (Vegan!)
- Chipotle Portobello Mushroom Tacos (Vegan!)
- Easy Baked Tacos
Middle Eastern Salad Tacos
- Prep Time: 15
- Cook Time: 5
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: 3 1x
- Category: vegan, main, lunch
- Method: assembled
- Cuisine: middle eastern
- Diet: Vegan
Description
Middle Eastern Salad Tacos with spiced chickpeas, hummus and a mound of lemony salad, topped with fresh herbs and scallions. Vegan & sooooo Delicious!
Ingredients
Middle Eastern Spiced Chickpeas (optional)
- 2 teaspoons olive oil
- 1 can chick peas, rinsed and drained
- 1 teaspoon sumac ( optional – leave out or use za’atar- see notes )
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1/4–1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon sesame seeds
½ cup Hummus – or Baba Ganoush (really delicious!) or Tahini Sauce ( not tahini paste)
6 x 6 inch tortillas, warmed or lightly toasted
Lemony Salad
- giant handful arugula ( or other greens)
- 1 tomato, diced
- 2 turkish cucumbers, diced
- 1–2 tablespoon olive oil
- 1–2 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1/4 teaspoon salt, more to taste
Optional Garnishes: 1-2 scallions, sliced, fresh herbs like cilantro, Italian parsley, mint or dill, or a combination, Dukkah, Zaatar, Tahini Sauce and Quick Pickled Onions
Instructions
Heat oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. Add chickpeas and spices and salt. Warm through, stirring. During the last minute add the sesame seeds. Turn heat off.
Toss the salad ingredients together in a medium bowl. Lightly toast the tortillas until warm and pliable.
Assemble. Spread hummus or baba ganoush onto the warm tortilla. Top with warm chickpeas and a heaping mound of the salad. Sprinkle with herbs and scallions.
Be happy, your body will love you for this.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: Two Tacos
- Calories: 405
- Sugar: 5.5 g
- Sodium: 539.9 mg
- Fat: 15.9 g
- Saturated Fat: 2.1 g
- Carbohydrates: 56.7 g
- Fiber: 11.9 g
- Protein: 13.6 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
good!
These are a quick, healthy and tasty lunch option!
Great to hear Rayanne! Appreciate the review.
Was all set to make the herby chick pea sandwich which we love, but then saw this, so changed path and made these. They are Wonderful! I didn’t have cucumber, so I did shredded carrots and chopped celery in the salad part with tomatoes etc, herbs parsley mint and a bit of purple basil -used hummus on this. Would love to try the other suggestions next time too. Great vegetarian option. Loved the Zaatar seasoning with this too. Thanks. A keeper!
Oh good! It is always fun to switch it up a bit. So glad this worked out for you and you adapted!
Yum! Made these with homemade hummus, dukkah, and pitas from this website. Definitely a keeper!!
Awesome Kera!
ls it possible you could add the nutrition information for this recipe? Know this is an added effort on your part and would be much appreciated. Thanks! This sounds so delicious as I have foudn ALL of your recipes I have made to be. I can’t wait to try it.
Hi Betty- I’m not sure why it disappeared but it is there now. 🙂
I made this early last year and lost the recipe I printed. I printed another one tonight. It is literally my favorite taco. So bright and versatile.
I only had lemon dill hummus on hand tonight so I used that and switched the tahini sauce for a vegan creamy dill dressing. The original is amazing of course but such a great idea to have in your rotation. I can’t wait to try more recipes 🙂
So happy you like this one Cheri!
So quick and flavorful!!! I can see why this is a go-to at your house. 100% would make again. Thank you!!
So glad you enjoyed!
My friends made this last night because they wanted to support me in my new Vegan journey. Wow!!!! Dinner was amazing!!!!! My friend sent me the recipe today and I’m heading to the grocery store! Thank you!!
Aww…love it!
I come back to this recipe again and again, often even just for the salad and chickpeas! Perfect as a light meal in the summer.
Thanks, we love it too!
Delicious!!!! Quick and easy with SO much flavor. I will come back to this again and again! THANKS!
Glad you enjoyed this Angela.
That was amazing! Couldn’t find Sumac so I used dried lemon peel and put it on a corn tortilla! So good!Thank you!
Perfect Marc!
I made this a salad (no tortillas) and it was perfect. Light, but filling enough for dinner. Took me no time, maybe 15 minutes! The price is right too lol! Meat is so high these days…
Great to hear Kate!
The Middle Eastern Salad Tacos are so easy to make and packed full of flavor. I ate as an easy quick lunch for a couple of days after making for dinner one night. The tahini sauce is awesome. I’m obsessed with all of the chick pea recipes here!
Thanks Mellonie! Appreciate this!
These are so good! And I felt amazing after eating them. Definitely adding these into my lunch rotation!