Greek Chickpea Salad
on Jul 22, 2021, Updated May 01, 2024
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This Greek chickpea salad is a roasted version of the classic recipe. It’s a sheet pan salad. Roasting tomatoes intensifies their flavor, and for chickpeas, roasting makes them nice and crispy. From there, the salad has everything you would expect including cucumbers, red onions, Kalamata olives and feta. It’s tossed in red wine vinaigrette.
For a recipe with similar ingredients, also try this quinoa chickpea salad with roasted tomatoes.
Table of Contents
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
It’s a fun twist on an iconic summer salad. Of course I appreciate the perfection that is tomatoes, olives, cucumbers, red onions and feta, but that can be a starting point to make thoughtful additions and changes.
You roast the chickpeas and tomatoes. What that does is add flavor and texture. You can enhance tomatoes that may not be at their peak ripeness. Roasted chickpeas turn out golden brown and crispy.
Because this is a no-lettuce salad, it can be thought of as a side dish too. I am a salad person, so I like having options that are both with greens and without because they are flexible with whatever you are serving with them.
The Ingredients
This is what you need:
- Tomatoes: I like smaller tomatoes because they are great for roasting. Use grape tomatoes or cherry tomatoes, sliced in half.
- Chickpeas: Also known as garbanzo beans, the recipe calls for one 15-ounce can. Drain and rinse the chickpeas with cold water in a colander. Pat them dry with a towel and remove any lose skins. It’s up to you if you want to pull off all the skins one by one.
- Cucumbers: Because of their delicate skin and limited amount of seeds, I prefer English cucumbers rather than regular ones.
- Onions: Thinly sliced red onions give the salad just enough onion flavor that’s not too sharp.
- Feta: I don’t bother cutting the feta into cubes. Instead I break it up into crumbles making sure there are some bigger pieces in the mix.
- Parsley: I also sprinkle in chopped fresh parsley. If you like fresh dill, you can add that too for a blend of fresh herbs.
- Greek salad dressing: It has dried oregano, minced garlic, mustard, lemon juice, red wine vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper.
How To Make This Greek Chickpea Salad
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
1. Toss the tomatoes and chickpeas with oil, salt and pepper. You can do this right on the sheet pan. Then spread them out in a single layer and turn over the tomatoes, so they are cut side up.
2. Roast the tomatoes and chickpeas. Give them 30-35 minutes. The tomatoes should be wrinkled, but still juicy in the middle. The chickpeas will be golden and crispy.
3. Make the vinaigrette. In a small bowl, whisk together the garlic, mustard, oregano, salt, pepper, vinegar, lemon juice and oil.
4. Assemble the salad ingredients. Use a large bowl for the roasted tomatoes and chickpeas, cucumbers, olives, onions, feta and parsley.
5. Drizzle in the vinaigrette. Gently stir the salad, so it is evenly dressed in the vinaigrette.
Serving
I like eating this salad as a main dish as the recipe is written. If you want to give it something more, you can also stir in a diced avocado or shredded rotisserie chicken.
You can also serve it as a side dish with vegetarian main dishes such as barbecue tofu veggie skewers or grilled tofu shawarma. It’s great with pastas too like pesto gnocchi, fresh herb pappardelle or arugula pesto pasta.
Storage & Leftovers
The salad is best eaten right after you make it, but you can store the salad in an airtight container in the refrigerator up to 3 days. Please keep in mind that chickpeas will lose their crispness.
For salads, I always like to plan ahead. If I’m doing meal prep or if I know I’m not going to eat all of it, I will only dress the amount of salad for that meal. Then I store the vinaigrette in a separate mason jar.
Recipe Tips
If you prefer, you can add the feta in cubes instead of crumbles. This will give you a stronger, saltier taste because the cheese is in bigger pieces.
You can make the vinaigrette up to 2 days in advance. Store it in the fridge. Just take it out about 15 minutes before you need it, so the oil the has a chance to turn into liquid again assuming that it has hardened in the fridge. Then whisk it.
Even though a Greek salad usually doesn’t have lettuce, you can add it. Given the size of the ingredients, this would be great to turn into a Greek chopped salad with romaine.
Recipe FAQs
No. If you want a more traditional Greek salad with the addition of chickpeas, you can keep them raw. Just remember that it will be important to use good, ripe tomatoes.
There are brands that make plant-based feta. Just substitute with that to make the salad vegan.
More Salad Recipes
Tomato Cucumber Feta Salad
Peach Caprese Salad
Mediterranean Bean Salad
Green Bean Salad with Tomatoes and Olives
Roasted Bell Pepper Salad
Zucchini Ribbon Salad
Fresh Corn Tomato Salad
Greek Chickpea Salad
Ingredients
For tomatoes and chickpeas
- 2 pints halved cherry tomatoes or grape tomatoes
- 1 15-ounce can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
For vinaigrette
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1 tablespoon whole grain mustard
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- Juice of 1/2 lemon
- 1/4 cup olive oil
For salad
- 1 cup diced cucumbers
- 1 cup pitted Kalamata olives
- 1/4 cup thinly sliced red onions
- 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
- 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
- On a sheet pan lined with parchment paper, toss the tomatoes and chickpeas with 1 tablespoon oil, 1 teaspoon kosher salt and 1/2 teaspoon black pepper. Spread them out in a single layer with the tomatoes cut side up.
- Roast until the tomatoes are wrinkled and have deepened in color and the chickpeas are golden brown and crisp, about 30-35 minutes.
- For the vinaigrette, whisk the garlic, mustard, oregano, 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt and 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, vinegar, lemon juice and 1/4 cup oil in a small bowl.
- In a large bowl, combine the tomatoes, chickpeas, cucumbers, olives, onions, feta and parsley.
- Drizzle the vinaigrette into the salad. Gently toss to combine.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
We just made this, it turned out delicious! !
That’s great! Thanks for letting me know!
I made this and I couldn’t help myself. So good! AND! my daughter almost 2 years old loved it as well.
Wow! You have a good eater at your house. I don’t think I could convince my 2-year-old to get excited about a salad.
Looking forward to trying this
Greek salads are my favorite. Vinaigrette dressing is a welcome plus as long as it’s lightly applied.
I made this today exactly how the recipe is and it came out fantastic!!
Great recipe! I’m learning how to make veggies taste better, and this was just what I needed. Love the roasted tomatoes and crispy chickpeas.