Easy Chickpea Salad Recipe with Lemon and Dill
Easy chickpea salad recipe with lemon, fresh dill, crisp cucumber and tomatoes that’s quick to make and you can make it in advance. Jump to the Easy Chickpea Salad Recipe or watch a quick recipe video showing you how we make it.
I love this chickpea salad because it’s so easy to make! You are looking at about 15 minutes, and you’re in chickpea salad heaven. We’re also pretty big fans of chickpeas around here. We’ve already shared our homemade hummus recipe, these honey roasted chickpeas, and this simple quinoa and chickpea salad with veggies.
How to Make the Best Chickpea Salad
Chickpeas are a versatile base for salads. They are nutritious, taste great, and inexpensive. To make the best chickpea salad, keep these tips in mind:
- Use quality chickpeas. You can use canned chickpeas — buy a brand you like (I love Eden Organic canned beans). Or you can cook dried chickpeas yourself. It takes a bit of time, but they keep in the fridge and freezer for a while. If you’re interested in cooking dried chickpeas from scratch, take a look at our in-depth tutorial for how to cook dried chickpeas.
- Add vegetables for color and texture. In this salad, we use lots of sweet tomatoes and crisp cucumbers. Any variety of cucumber works, but I usually buy the seedless variety (often sold wrapped in plastic) or the smaller, thin-skinned cucumbers (often sold as Persian cucumbers). I like these because you don’t need to peel or remove seeds. If you’re using thicker-skinned cucumbers, give them a peel.
- Use a bright and flavorful salad dressing. Chickpeas are a fantastic salad base, but they don’t have much flavor by themselves. That’s why we love tossing them with an ultra-flavorful dressing. As the salad sits, the chickpeas absorb the dressing and get more and more delicious over time.
- Use lots of fresh herbs. We reach for lots of fresh dill, but most tender herbs will work here. Think about mint, parsley or a combination of herbs.
Our Favorite Chickpea Salad Dressing
Introducing our favorite salad dressing. It makes just about anything taste better. The dressing is simple, fresh, and seriously one of the most made recipes in our kitchen. Here’s what goes into our salad dressing:
- Fresh lemon juice lightens up the salad and makes all the ingredients taste fresh.
- Extra-virgin olive oil balances the lemon and makes the dressing creamy.
- Dijon mustard adds a little tang.
- Honey balances out the lemon and mustard.
- Salt and pepper help to season the salad — a must!
We use this dressing to make our couscous salad — everyone loves it!
Make Ahead Tips
As I mentioned above, you only need 15 minutes of hands-on time to make this, which helps to make this one of my favorite salads on Inspired Taste.
The other reason I love it is that it tastes even better when it made in advance, making this a perfect make-ahead salad.
You can get away with making this an entire day in advance and if you want it to last even longer, keep the tomatoes off to the side. The tomatoes break down a bit too much for me on day two, but prepping them and keeping them in a container next to the salad deals with that. Then when you want to eat the salad, throw in a handful of tomatoes, and you’re set.
Recipe updated, originally posted December 2012. Since posting this in 2012, we have tweaked the recipe to be more clear and added a quick recipe video. – Adam and Joanne
Easy Chickpea Salad Recipe with Lemon and Dill
- PREP
This easy chickpea salad is one of our favorite salads. I love how quick and simple it is. Eat this straight out of the bowl or use it to top salad greens. We love the combination of lemon and dill, but the salad is just as delicious with other fresh herbs — try basil, parsley, or even fresh mint.
Makes approximately 6 (1/2 cup) servings
You Will Need
2 (15-ounce) cans chickpeas or 3 cups cooked chickpeas
1 medium thin-skinned cucumber, often called hothouse or English
6 small tomatoes
1 1/2 ounces feta cheese (substitute crumbled goat cheese)
1/4 cup (60 ml) fresh lemon juice (1 large lemon)
1/4 cup (60 ml) extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon honey
1/4 cup coarsely chopped fresh dill (feathery fronds and tender stems only)
Salt and fresh ground black pepper
Directions
Open, drain and rinse the chickpeas, and then add to a large bowl.
Cut the cucumbers into quarters, lengthwise, and then chop into bite-size chunks. Cut the tomatoes into small wedges. Add the cucumbers and tomatoes to the chickpeas then break the feta cheese into crumbles on top.
In a medium bowl, make the dressing. Whisk lemon juice, olive oil, mustard, honey, and the fresh dill together then season with salt and pepper, to taste. Pour the dressing over the salad and toss.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- Make-Ahead: This salad can be made a few hours in advance. If you plan to make it a day in advance, we recommend leaving the tomatoes out of the salad, and then cutting and adding them just before serving since they are more fragile and will wilt more quickly than the cucumbers and chickpeas.
- If you’re cooking chickpeas from dried, here’s our easy tutorial showing three ways to do it. We even show you how to cook chickpeas in a slow cooker.
- Nutrition facts: The nutrition facts provided below are estimates. We have used the USDA Supertracker recipe calculator to calculate approximate values.
If you make this recipe, snap a photo and hashtag it #inspiredtaste — We love to see your creations on Instagram and Facebook! Find us: @inspiredtaste
Nutrition Per Serving: Serving Size 1/2 cup / Calories 276 / Protein 10 g / Carbohydrate 30 g / Dietary Fiber 8 g / Total Sugars 8 g / Total Fat 14 g / Saturated Fat 3 g / Cholesterol 8 mg
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Love the salad, it will be a favorite from now on,
Ive made this a few times now! I add bell peppers when I make it the night before. Then chopped up romaine lettuce right before packing it in the morning and this makes great lunches for two to three days for two people. Dont skimp out on the feta it’s worth it!
Loved your recipes.
I made this last night, only omitting the honey. SO refreshing and tasty. I often make a chickpea & cucumber salad but the mustard and dill added a nice new twist. Great recipe!
I made this recipe for this first time this evening, though I halved the recipe. I added halved Italian marinated green olives (from Whole Foods olive bar), an heirloom tomato and high quality Greek feta. The flavor was outstanding. So fresh. I loved this so much that it was all I ate for dinner! Visiting friends at their home in Lake Tahoe this weekend. This salad will be a perfect accompaniment to our BBQ. Thank you for sharing the recipe.
Thank you!! This salad came out soooo delicious
Loved it but crazy me, I added chopped banana , mandarin orange segments, chopped red onion with tuna fish, made a great main meal, i can eat this anytime
Great recipe. Very fresh and lovely for summer.
I added cous-cous cooked in chicken broth instead of water to this salad and it was to die for and was mor filling!
You guys rock!
Really lovely recipe. Thanks so much
Can I use vegetable oil instead of olive oil
Hi Donnie, Vegetable oil will work just fine if it is all you have. We call for the olive oil, because it adds a bit more flavor.
I loved this recipe! It was so easy and fresh and everyone loved it!