Chickpea Salad with juicy tomatoes, crispy cucumbers, creamy avocado, zesty red onion and garbanzo beans. This protein packed salad takes only 15 minutes to make!
Chickpea Avocado Salad
This is the best chickpea salad recipe I ever made! It is super tasty and is based on traditional Ukrainian cucumber and tomato salad I grew up with, minus the garbanzo beans. Juicy tomato, creamy avocado, crunchy cucumber and simple dressing with olive oil, salt and freshly cracked pepper.
Natural juices from tomato and cucumber are released as soon as you add salt, so you don’t need much oil. And red onion slices are big enough for kids to pick out and adults to enjoy.
This chickpea avocado salad is so filling, it can be lunch. Meal prep for a week, serve alongside grilled chicken breast or salmon, bring to a potluck. Sprinkle with feta cheese. Possibilities are endless!
Chickpeas or Garbanzo Beans?
Chickpeas known in the US and garbanzo beans known in Europe are legumes of yellow colour and round shape. That is what hummus is made of. Chickpeas are extremely high in protein and super good for you.
For this chickpea salad you have 2 options of garbanzo beans to use:
- Canned: I recommend to buy organic low sodium chickpeas in BPA free cans. They are not cheap or always available. BPA has been proven to interfere with our hormones, cause cancer and fertility issues. BPA is nasty stuff thank goodness our world is paying more attention to.
- Cooked: A few years ago I learnt how to cook dried beans and now I make Instant Pot chickpeas too. It is once in a few months time investment that I do for my family’s health and budget. However, pressure cooker version is way easier than stovetop.
How to Make Chickpea Salad
- Pick avocados with brown skin and slightly soft to the touch. Using chef’s knife, cut avocado in half lengthwise. Hold half with a pit in one hand or place on a cutting board, gently tap sharp edge into the pit deep enough to twist the pit out, twist the knife and discard the pit. Cut avocado into desired width strips (depending on avocado’s size), peel the skin and dice.
- No matter the size of vegetables, make sure to chop them into bite size pieces a bit larger chickpeas’ size for the maximum flavour in every bite. Costco is a great source of mini cucumbers, grape tomatoes and avocados (the best ones I ever tried!) all year round, often locally greenhouse grown => my Costco shopping list.
- Add salt and pepper, drizzle with olive oil and stir gently.
Can I Make It Ahead?
Yes. You can make chickpea salad up to 1 day ahead:
- Add all ingredients except oil, salt and pepper to a salad bowl.
- Squeeze lemon/lime juice on avocados or dice avocados before serving.
- Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.
- Add olive oil, salt and pepper immediately before serving.
Store leftovers for up to 1 day. Because there are no leafy greens, salad holds up well.
Variations
This salad is packed with plant-based protein, blood cleansing cilantro, vitamin C loaded tomatoes, heart healthy avocado and cancer fighting red onion. I’m selling it super hard to you, right?! I just want everyone to eat healthy. True fact. 🙂
- You could add any leafy greens like kale, Romaine lettuce or spinach.
- And of course a little bit of freshly grated garlic adds more oumph.
- My aunt always added sliced radishes.
- Add 1/4 cup crumbled feta but then reduce salt.
- Toasted pine nuts make this salad more Mediterranean.
- Replace cilantro with Italian parsley or dill.
- Add diced jalapeno and 1 tsp cumin for a Mexican twist.
Chickpea salad is perfect mid-summer when days are hot and garden is abundant. Use what you have.
Enjoy! 🙂
More High Protein Salads to Try
- Mango black bean salad – this combo is the bomb dot com!
- Mexican bean salad so simple with only 2 kinds of beans.
- Healthy chicken salad without loads of mayo, same creamy!
- Canned salmon salad is so good with bell peppers and capers!
- Southwest quinoa salad
Chickpea Salad
Chickpea Salad with juicy tomatoes, crispy cucumbers, creamy avocado, zesty red onion and garbanzo beans. This protein packed salad takes only 15 minutes to make!
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 0 minutes
- Total Time: 15 minutes
- Yield: 8 servings 1x
- Category: Salad
- Method: No cook
- Cuisine: American Ukrainian
Ingredients
- 2 x 14 oz cans chickpeas, drained & rinsed
- 1.5 lbs cucumbers, cut into bite size pieces
- 1.5 lbs tomatoes, cut into bite size pieces
- 3 medium ripe avocados, diced
- 1/4 medium red onion, thinly sliced
- 1/2 cup cilantro (dill or parsley), finely chopped
- 1 large lime or lemon, juice of
- 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- Ground black pepper, to taste
Instructions
- In a large bowl, add all chickpeas, cucumbers, tomatoes, avocado, red onion and cilantro.
- Squeeze lemon or lime on top, drizzle with olive oil and add salt and pepper.
- Gently stir to combine and adjust salt to taste (I recommend to start with less if using canned chickpeas).
- Serve cold on its own or with grilled chicken breast or salmon.
Store: Refrigerate in an airtight glass container for up to 24 hours.
Make Ahead: You can make this salad up to 1 day ahead, if you add oil, salt and pepper immediately before serving. Make sure to pour lemon/lime juice on avocados or dice avocados before serving.
Notes
- I cook my own chickpeas in Instant Pot now. You can also cook beans and legumes on the stove. Both recipes are unsalted. If you are using canned chickpeas I recommend to start with less salt than listed.
- Use medium ripeness avocados and tomatoes (not too mushy), so they hold their shape better once mixed.
- Also I recommend not to chop parsley or cilantro but rather tear the leaves off – salad looks less messy that way.
Did you make this recipe? Please give it a star rating in the comments.
This was excellent and super easy to make. Thank You.
★★★★★
You are very welcome, Melissa.
Perfect quick dinner.
Thank you 🙂
★★★★★
You are very welcome, Anna.
Holy cow lady! I have spent a lot of time reading your recipes and have found them super interesting, hilarious, and relaxing. I was visiting my bro and pa in Vancouver and I googled healthy blueberry loaf. (I am from Manitoba) I have recently broken my leg badly and reading your site has been good for my soul and excellent to stock up my mind with inspiration for when I am more mobile.
I read your Ukrainian tomato ‘relish’ recipe at one point, but I am having difficulty locating it again. Where can I find it?
Many thanks
Hey girl. It’s is called Adjika. Search for it on the blog. Hope you feel better soon!!!
Super easy – and so delicious. Thank You.
★★★★★
You are so welcome, Annette! I’m making this salad with nutritional greens today.
Ahh mazing!! Just made this today… so refreshing! Thanks Olena for sharing all your wonderful, healthy & simple to make recipes! Enjoying your blog/site very much – so have people with whom I’ve shared your site with!! You make cooking fun!!
Hi Tricia. So happy to hear!!! And thank you so much for sharing the recipes and making our world healthier.:)
Delicious! Fresh, healthy ingredients combine to create amazing flavors and textures. I used mostly cilantro but had picked some fresh parsley from my mom’s yard so I chopped that up and threw it in too – so many beautiful, summer flavors together in one salad. I commented yesterday on the spinach strawberry salad that I added cubed chicken to fuel my husband’s meat preference and I used the other half of that cubed chicken (boneless skinless tenders baked in the oven with EVOO, fresh garlic, salt, pepper, and little hot chili powder) in this salad today.
★★★★★
You are quite on a salad kick, Kandi.:) Me too, with all this heat…
Lookin’ good!
★★★★★
Perfect response – we need to learn, at least myself I had to do this, how to just eat real food and trust that our bodies will get what they need. Go to Europe, most people will not even think about what kind of nutrition they need and how to calculate the food. They eat a steak because it tastes delicious, not to get a certain amount of protein. Since I stopped being aware of nutrition/calories, weight has gone done to my surprise. I recommend watching “In the defence of food” on netflix. Thank you Olena for being so clear. You are one of the leaders of this movement.
I have fallen a victim of the North American way to analyze our diets “under the microscope” and it has done nothing but bad things to my self esteem and life. So I will propagande against any type of diet for now. Thank you for sharing your voice!!!
Do you have the nutrition info posted regarding this recipe? I have seen it at the bottom on some of your others, but I can’t find it for the Chickpea Avocado Salad. Thanks!
Sorry, I don’t.
I wish you’d post the nutritional facts about recipes. I hesitate to try them without those as I watch both my fat and carb intake.
I stopped counting calories because they don’t mater if you eat healthy and real food. I have struggled so many years calculating and overthinking food which led me to a very unhappy place. I do not post calories to lead by example and to encourage mindful intuitive and healthy eating which should not lead to any overweight issues. I proved it myself once I stopped counting and am much happier person now. My mission is to make more women happy because so many of them are suffering and struggling. So no calories.:) I hope you try this delicious salad, it’s so good and healthy you can eat until you get sick of it and nothing will happen to your fat deposits, trust me.
I total agree.I’m trying to eat healthy as a way of life,not a diet of calorie counting and worrying.eat fresh,real foods and you’ll be ok.I’m making this salad today!Thanks again Olena
★★★★★
Very welcome, Shirley.:) Enjoy! Great time of the year for it.
I could eat this every day, so fresh!!
I agree.
I know you said wait to add salt, pepper and lemon juice until just before serving if I make this a day early but can I at least add the lemon juice to keep the avocados from turning brown? Thanks for the recipe!
Yes you can. It is mostly the salt that draws moisture from vegetables and makes salad soggy overnight.
This has to be the best salad creation I have ever had. In addition, its a great way to get rid of the things that spoiling in the refrigerator. I have made this recipe multiple times and its always a hit! I cant thank you enough for turning my life around and making me realize that healthy could also be delicious!
You are welcome! That is how we cook – use up what you have and anything goes in this salad. A bit of oil, vinegar, garlic, salt and pepper will make any salad delicious. My staple “dressing” LOL
So if I am making this salad a day ahead of time do I add the oil and salt before I store it for the night or right before I eat it.
You add salt, pepper and oil right before you eat it. Store just chopped veggies.:)