Best Spanish Chickpea Salad Recipe

Every day is a good day to find new Spanish salad recipes, so we want to show you one of our favorite salads.

Here we will talk about the Spanish chickpea salad, a salad that is perfect to have during the summer or even during the winter (it only calls for vegetables that are available all year round).

Keep scrolling down this article to learn how to make it at home, plus some extra tips to nail every aspect of this Spanish chickpea recipe.

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Pssst…??!! You can’t get enough Spanish salad recipes? Have a look at my other posts:

• Traditional Spanish Salad Recipe – Remojón
• Appetizing Ensalada Campera Recipe
• Delicious Murcia Salad Recipe from Spain

Background of the Dish

Chickpea salads, in general, actually come from Arabic Cuisine, since chickpeas are a staple ingredient for most of its recipes.

The Spanish chickpea salad was created after a mix of Arabic cuisine and Mediterranean one, and it is truly the perfect blend between them.

To make the Arabic chickpea salad, you have onions, garlic, tomato, and olive oil (staple ingredients from Southern Spain) mixed with the fantastic chickpeas.

Things You’ll Need for Spanish Chickpea Salad

To make this easy chickpea salad you will need canned chickpeas, tomatoes, onion, garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, and cucumber as the main ingredients.

As you will see later, there are different replacements that you can make for the Spanish chickpea salad ingredients so don’t worry if you don’t have all of them.

Ingredients

• 1 can (430 gr) chickpeas (pre-cooked)
• 3 tomatoes
• 1 garlic clove
• 1 onion
• 1 cucumber
• 2 tablespoons fresh chopped cilantro
• 1 lemon
• 1/4 cup (60ml) olive oil
• 10 pitted black olives (optional)
• Salt and pepper (to taste)

How to Make Spanish Chickpea Salad – Step by Step Guide

1. To start making the basic chickpea salad recipe you have to peel the onion and chop it into small squares or julienne style. Then let the pieces rest for a couple of minutes in hot water and then drain them (this will help them not have an overpowering flavor).

2. Then, mince the garlic clove, and you can also cook it if you prefer a softer taste (it depends on what you like). Also, chop the tomatoes into small pieces.

3. After that, peel and chop the cucumber into small pieces. Small squares are the way to go for the cucumber, but you could go for thin slices too.

4. Next, wash and drain the pre-cooked canned chickpeas to remove any dirt. You can use raw chickpeas, but keep in mind that the cooking process would take you 3 hours, so it is faster to use canned and precooked ones (the taste is the same).

5. Now you can start to assemble all the ingredients of the garbanzo bean salad in a large bowl. Season with salt and pepper to taste and mix.

6. In a small cup or bowl mix the juice of one lemon with the olive oil, then use it for the dressing of the summer chickpea salad.

7. Then, mix everything together until it gets completely covered with the dressing. As an optional step, chop the pitted black olives in half and pour them on top of the salad along with chopped fresh cilantro.

8. For the final step, you can serve the best Mediterranean salad right away or take it to the fridge for a couple of minutes to cool down.

Substitution of Ingredients

The ingredients listed in this article are the ones for the classic Spanish-Mediterranean chickpea salad, but as it happens with all salads with chickpeas, you can play with the ingredients.

First, you can use raw chickpeas instead of canned ones, and prepare them the day before (or 8 hours before) making this Spanish chickpea salad.

You can also replace the chickpeas with other types of beans, such as white beans or black beans, something like a Spanish vegetable salad.

Besides that, feel free to take inspiration from other chickpea salad recipes and add different ingredients such as shredded chicken, carrots, red bell peppers, etc.

Try making a honey mustard chickpea salad or chickpea and chorizo salad.

Get these Spanish salad ideas, such as the Spanish lentil salad, Spanish bean salad, and the Spanish mixed green salad recipe.

La Paella: Deliciously Authentic Rice Dishes from Spain’s Mediterranean CoastCarbon Steel Paella PanPaella Seasoning from SpainSpanish AioliOrganic Extra Virgin Olive OilForum – Spanish Cabranet Sauvignon Red Wine Vinegar – 500 mL

 

Tips on Serving Spanish Chickpea Salad

You can serve this Spanish chickpea salad for lunch or dinner, and it is commonly served as a side dish or as an appetizer.

However, if you serve larger portions of the salad with garbanzo beans then it can be the perfect main dish (the chickpeas are really filling).

Chickpea salads work great as a side dish of seafood (like hake filet) or chicken, due to its flavor profile.

You can serve it like other Mediterranean chickpea recipes and add some chopped mozzarella or cheese cubes on top while serving the salad.

Try this easy-to-make Spanish macaroni salad, a perfect salad for the summer, that’s also very nutritious.

How to Store Spanish Chickpea Salad

Once you finish making the chickpeas salad recipe, you can serve it right away or store it.

However, you can’t store the Spanish chickpea salad for too long: just for up to 3 days in the fridge.

We don’t recommend freezing this salad because the chickpeas usually don’t freeze well.

Don’t be discouraged by that, keep in mind that if you use canned chickpeas, this simple chickpea salad recipe takes less than 30 minutes to be ready.

Some Spanish salad recipes that you can make if you want to store them for longer are the Spanish grilled octopus salad and the Spanish tuna salad.

Recipe Card: Spanish Chickpea Salad

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FAQ on Best Chickpea Salad Recipe

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