Simple Summer Chickpea Salad Recipe

Are you tired of always eating the same classic lettuce salad? Luckily for you, Spanish recipes offer a mesmerizing range of salads, adding excitement and diversity to your meals.

The summer chickpea salad is a vibrant and colorful dish, filled with flavor and packed with fresh ingredients that make it both refreshing and satisfying.

To learn how to make it from scratch with some tips for storing, serving, and customizing the ingredients, you just have to keep reading this article.

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

• Chickpea And Chorizo Salad

• Roasted Beet Salad Recipe

• Spanish Chicken Salad

Background of the Dish

Thanks to its scorching summers, Andalusia is the home of some of the best Spanish salad recipes designed to be refreshing, light, and bursting with fresh, seasonal ingredients.

The summer chickpea salad is one of the newest varieties of the Spanish chickpea salad, incorporating Mediterranean flavors such as pitted black olives, feta cheese, and the classic salad dressing.

Nowadays it is known as the summer alternative for the Spanish chickpea stew providing a fresh option that still captures the essence of the regional flavors and the hearty appeal of chickpeas.

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Things You’ll Need for Summer Chickpea Salad

To make the summer chickpea salad you will need canned and cooked chickpeas, bell peppers, onion, garlic clove, pitted black olives, feta cheese, olive oil, and vinegar as the main ingredients.

Ingredients

• 2 cans (400gr each) cooked chickpeas
• 1 cucumber
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 yellow bell pepper
• 1 red onion
• 1 tomato
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1/4 cup (40gr) pitted black olives
• 1/4 cup (60gr) crumbled feta cheese
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon vinegar
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 tablespoon chopped parsley or cilantro (optional, for topping)
• Salt and pepper (to taste)

How to Make Summer Chickpea Salad – Step by Step Guide

1. To start with this healthy chickpea salad recipe, you have to cut the bell peppers in half, discard the seeds, and cut them into small squares. Chop the tomato and cucumber into bite-sized pieces. Peel and chop the red onion. Mince the garlic cloves. Set them aside.

2. After that, rinse and drain the canned chickpeas. Cut the pitted black olives in half and crumble the feta cheese if needed.

3. Now, grab a large bowl and place the vegetables and chickpeas from the traditional Spanish salad.

4. Then, using a small bowl, mix the olive oil, vinegar, paprika, salt, and pepper. That will be the dressing for the healthy chickpea salad dressing. For that, mix the olive oil, vinegar, paprika, salt and pepper.

5. To continue with this chickpea summer salad recipe, pour the dressing on top of the salad. Gently toss the summer chickpea salad until everything gets coated.

6. After that, taste the salad and adjust the seasoning or amount of dressing if needed. As an optional step in this Spanish chickpea salad recipe, you can take it to the fridge to cool down for up to 30 minutes.

7. For the final step in this Spanish salad recipe, top the summer chickpea salad with the pitted black olives, feta cheese, and optionally with the fresh chopped parsley or cilantro, and enjoy.

Substitution of Ingredients

As long as you have chickpeas you will be able to prepare this delicious summer chickpea salad, simply adapting its other components.

For a full-summer chickpea salad recipe, you can draw inspiration from the Spanish chopped salad and add other fresh veggies such as lettuce, carrots, zucchini, etc.

In this recipe, you are supposed to use the dressing from the traditional Spanish salads, but you can copy other Andalusian gems like the honey mustard chickpea salad, and opt for a balsamic reduction, a honey mustard vinaigrette, or a creamy Spanish garlic sauce.

Using different bell peppers is one of the main differences between this recipe and the basic chickpea salad, but feel free to use the peppers that you have on hand.

Lastly, feta cheese and black olives are key to making this the best Mediterranean chickpea salad recipe, but you could replace them with manchego, parmesan cheese, or green olives to suit your preferences.

Tips on Serving Summer Chickpea Salad

This classic Spanish chickpea salad is typically served as a side dish or appetizer, garnished with fresh herbs to enhance its vibrant color and flavor.

Like most Spanish salads recipes, you should serve it with a slice of your favorite bread, such as a crusty baguette or rustic country loaf, to soak up the delicious dressing and add an extra layer of texture and taste.

Besides that, you can top the summer chickpea salad with other types of protein to make it more filling, such as hard-boiled eggs, grilled chicken, shrimp, etc.

Other Andalusian dishes that you can serve along this summer chickpea salad to have the perfect appetizers are the vegetarian empanadas and the refreshing Spanish vegetable salad.

How to Store Summer Chickpea Salad

If you have plans to store the summer chickpea salad, then you have to make the recipe step by step but avoid adding the dressing.

After that, take the summer salad with chickpeas to the fridge in a covered container (with a lid, plastic wrap, or a clean plastic bag) where you can store it for up to 24 hours.

When ready to serve, do a taste test on the summer chickpea salad and adjust the seasoning and dressing until the flavors are balanced. 

Spanish salads, in general, can’t be stored for too long because they are best when served fresh, yet we have other Andalusian recipes for you to try -and store for longer- such as the Spanish chorizo soup and the Spanish chorizo stew.

Recipe Card: Summer Chickpea Salad

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