If you’re looking for healthy salads that are filling and easy to make, you’ve come to the right place. This round-up includes 10 salads that contain chickpeas, but as you go from one to the next, you’ll notice they’re very different.
Here we have chickpea in combination with tuna, chicken, and quinoa. We have one with a Tahini dressing and middle eastern, Mediterranean, Indian, and Moroccan inspired flavors.
Chickpeas are nutritious
Chickpeas are also known as Garbanzo beans, so you may see the words used interchangeably. As with all legumes, chickpeas are high in protein, which is great for vegetarians and vegans. They contain about 39g of protein in every cup – that’s high.
They are also high in fiber which will help to keep you full. Fiber is also great for your gut because it helps to feed your gut bacteria.
Chickpeas contain a resistant starch called Amylose. This starch helps to regulate your blood sugar levels. Why is this good for you? Because regulated blood sugar means that your insulin levels are not spiked. Insulin likes to hold onto fat, so if your sugar levels are constantly up and down, your insulin levels will follow, and it’ll be harder for you to lose weight.
When it comes to iron, chickpeas are on par with beef (comparing 200 calories of chickpeas to 200 calories of beef). Again, great for vegetarians and vegans.
Chickpeas are also high in vitamins B1, B5, B6, magnesium and manganese. So good for you.
Preparing dry chickpeas
I personally love freshly prepared chickpeas but if you’re short on time, like me, you can use canned chickpeas. I admit, I use cans more often than fresh chickpeas but that’s ok. They are still packed with nutrients and accompanying other ingredients that are super healthy too.
If you do want to prepare your chickpeas from scratch, you should know that it’s quite easy, but it does take time. Preparing your own chickpeas is great because you know what you’ve added to them, they don’t contain any preservatives or additives, you can control their texture and what’s great is that you can cook them and freeze them for another day.
Chickpeas need to be cooked, but to shorten the cooking process, you can soak them overnight or on the stove.
Soaking overnight – soak chickpeas for 8 hours overnight, drain and rinse, cover with water and cook for about 2 hours.
Soak on the stove – boil water containing chickpeas for about 5 minutes, then turn it off and let it soak for an hour. Drain and rinse, then cover chickpeas with water and cook for 1.5-2 hours.
Check the texture to gauge when to stop the cooking process.
Mediterranean Chickpea Salad
This salad is a tangy sweet salad featuring honey goat cheese, dates and vegetables with a lemon garlic dressing.
The vegetables in this salad include persian cucumbers, roasted red peppers and cherry tomatoes.
Total to prepare this salad is 20 minutes so it’s super quick provided your chickpeas are ready to go.
This salad is perfect for vegetarians. High in iron, protein and meat-free.
You can add roasted chickpeas as an optional ingredient.
This serves 4-6 people.
Chickpea Shawarma Salad
The Chickpea Shawarma Salad contains oven roasted chickpeas which gives it a nice crunch.
The dressing is hummus-based, garlicky and tangy – simply delicious.
The calories and fat content are higher than the average salad, so just watch this if you’re trying to lose weight. It contains 435 calories per serving and just over 17g of fat.
You can reduce the calories and fat in your portion by reducing the dressing and pita chips.
- Calories: 435
- Carbs: 53.3g
- Fat: 17.3g
- Fiber: 13.2g
Chicken Chickpea Salad
This chicken chickpea salad is great for leftovers. If you have leftover chicken and a can of chickpeas, it’s so quick and easy to whip up.
The recipe contains a number of vegetable ingredients but calls on any vegetables you have lying around.
Very high in protein with the chicken and chickpeas. Chicken and chickpeas, great for us chicks. Great is you’re building muscle.
If you are vegan, simply leave out the chicken and cheese.
The recipe calls for BBQ dressing but does not include a recipe for it, so it is assumed you will make that separately or use a store bought dressing.
If you are buying ready-made dressing, just ensure you check the calories and fat content, particularly if you are trying to lose weight.
Chickpea Tuna Salad
Here’s another salad with a double shot of protein with the tuna and chickpeas. Not only is tuna high in protein, it’s also full of Omega-3 which is great for your brain.
This healthy salad also contains feta cheese, a variety of vegetables and is topped of with a lemon-based dressing. What goes better with tuna that lemon?
This salad takes 25 minutes to prepare and is guilt-free. Fast food that’s super healthy.
- Calories: 360
- Carbs: 26g
- Protein: 29g
- Fat: 18g
- Fiber: 7g
Chickpea Salad with Tahini Dressing
I included this recipe in the round-up because I love tahini dressing. It’s so tangy but also healthy.
Tahini is made from sesame seeds. Unhulled tahini, contains more nutrients than the hulled type. Unhulled just means the outer husk of the sesame seeds has not been removed.
Sesame seeds are high in calcium, iron, and vitamins B1, B3, B6. Sesame seeds are also a good source of zinc, selenium, copper and vitamin E. You can see why I love tahini.
Chickpea Quinoa Salad
This is such a colorful salad – it just puts me in a good mood.
Another protein packed salad, you have the chickpeas, coupled with quinoa.
Some may mistaken quinoa for a grain, but it’s actually a seed.
Quinoa needs to be washed thoroughly before cooking. The great thing about quinoa is that it cooks in no time.
The flavors in this salad include lemon coupled with sumac for the dressing. Sumac is a middle eastern flavor that is tangy and comes from the wild, bushy sumac plant.
This is a flavorsome salad that is low in calories, so great if you’re on a weight loss journey.
- Calories: 253
- Carbs: 30.3g
- Protein: 7.5g
- Fat: 12.8g
- Fiber: 6.1g
Morrocan Chickpea Salad
Morrocan flavors are diverse. You can see that come through in this recipe where there is a taste of the Mediterranean with the yogurt, typical Morrocan spices like cumin and then the unusual addition of soy sauce.
This recipe is deliciously balanced with sweet, salty and sour flavors coming through. Delicious pomegranate molasses gives it a sweet but sour flavor added to the salty notes of the soy sauce.
- Calories: 365
- Carbs: 40.35g
- Protein: 12.5g
- Fat: 18.95g
- Fiber: 10.29g
Chickpea Salad with Lemon Mint Vinaigrette
A fresh zesty salad that’s very quick and easy to prepare. This reminds me of a garden salad sans the lettuce and with the addition of chickpeas.
Did you know that consuming vitamin C with iron actually helps the iron absorb into the body more effectively?
Tomatoes are a good source of vitamin C so eating tomatoes with chickpeas helps with the absorption of iron in the chickpeas.
Indian Chickpea Salad
This chickpea salad features Indian flavors. Chaat Masala is a key spice which you can find in any Indian grocery store.
It can be used as a starter of a side with Tandoori chicken.
At just 61 calories per serve, this is the perfect salad for weight loss.
It’s quick and easy – just 25 minutes and you’re done.
It’s all in the flavors and the Chaat Masala really is the star of the dish.
- Calories: 61
- Carbs: 5
- Protein: 12.5g
- Fat: 4g
- Fiber: 1g