This Quinoa Chickpea Salad recipe is bursting with Mediterranean flavors! Fresh, light, and lemony, packed full of nutrients; you’ll want to serve this up all summer long! Healthy, vegan, gluten-free, and great for meal prep. Video.
Why you’ll love this Quinoa Salad
Bright and punchy, this quinoa salad is a flavor explosion! Full of fresh, healthy ingredients and Mediterranean flavors, it’s one you’ll want to make over and over again. Quinoa is combined with chickpeas, cucumber, tomatoes, kalamata olives, red onion, fresh dill, and loads of parsley, but it’s the incredible preserved lemon dressing that elevates it!
This was our “go-to” quinoa salad in our catering business, always a hit with our clients, and such a crowd pleaser! The salad can be made ahead and stored in the fridge for up to 4 days, actually improving with time. Perfect for meal prep! The best thing is, you probably have everything on hand to make this right now – and please don’t worry if you don’t have preserved lemons (take a peek at the recipe notes), but they do truly elevate here.
Quinoa Chickpea Salad Ingredients
- Quinoa – dry uncooked white quinoa, red quinoa, or tricolored quinoa
- Canned chickpeas- drained, or feel free to cook from scratch!
- Fresh Veggies- red onion, English Cucumber, red or yellow bell pepper, cherry or grape tomatoes
- Kalamata olives, pitted, chopped or halved
- Herbs – flat-leaf parsley and dill ( or sub fresh mint)
- Optional additions: avocado, feta, radishes
The Lemon Dressing!
- Extra-Virgin Olive Oil– for richness and polyphenols!
- Fresh lemon juice– fresh lemon juice is a must here! Don’t use bottled.
- Fresh garlic cloves- for a punchy flavor, finely minced
- Salt and black Pepper
- Optional additions: sumac and preserved lemon ( or sub lemon zest)
How to Make Quinoa Salad
Step 1. It starts with cooking the quinoa- you can use this guide to cook the quinoa.
Step 2. Make the lemon dressing. Today we are using preserved lemons to make this even more punchy and flavorful- but no worries, you can leave them out! Preserved lemons, if unfamiliar, are a flavorful Middle Eastern condiment, and in a nutshell, are lemons preserved in salt. Here they are chopped finely and added to the dressing. If you don’t have them- don’t worry- see the recipe notes!
Step 3. Prep your veggies and herbs while the quinoa is cooking!
Step 4. Assemble! Then assemble the quinoa salad, adding the chickpeas, veggies and herbs to the bowl. Give a toss with the Lemon Dressing and taste, adding more salt and lemon to your liking. Sprinkle with a little sumac if you like and fresh herbs!
Serving Suggestions
This salad pairs well with Mediterranean dishes or Middle Eastern flavors! Here are a few ideas:
- Grilled Chicken Shawarma
- Mediterranean Stuffed Peppers
- Sheet Pan Mediterranean Chicken
- Grilled Tofu
- Baba Ganoush
- Homemade Pita Bread
- Authentic Falafels
- Tzatziki
Storage
This Quinoa Salad will keep up to 4 days in an airtight container in the fridge. If making this salad ahead, re-taste for salt and lemon right before serving and quinoa can soak up some of the salt.
I hope enjoy this fresh, vibrant salad- please leave a rating and a comment below- always appreciated! 💛 Sylvia
MORE Favorite SALADS YOU MAY LIKE!
- Thai Quinoa Salad
- Carrot Quinoa Salad
- Southwest Black Bean Quinoa Salad
- Quinoa Asparagus Salad (aka Spring Tabouli)
- Moroccan Quinoa Salad with Blood Oranges, Quinoa, Olives, Almonds and Mint
- Grilled Corn Salad
- Blueberry Salad
Watch how to make Quinoa Salad
Quinoa Chickpea Salad
- Prep Time: 15
- Cook Time: 15
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 6
- Category: salad, vegan salad
- Method: tossed
- Cuisine: Middle Eastern
- Diet: Vegan
Description
This Quinoa Chickpea Salad is made with chickpeas, cucumber, tomato, kalamata olives dill, parsley and Preserved Lemon Dressing. A healthy vegan salad with Middle Eastern flavors that can be made ahead!
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup preserved lemons, finely chopped (or see notes)
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 2 garlic cloves, finely minced
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon sumac (optional)
- 3/4 cup quinoa (dry, uncooked)
- 1 1/2 cups water
- 1 15-ounce can chickpeas, rinsed and drained ( 1 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas)
- 1/2 cup red onion, finely chopped (see notes)
- 1 English cucumber, diced (2 cups)
- 1 bell pepper (yellow is nice) diced
- 1 cup cherry or grape tomatoes, halved ( or chopped radish)
- 1/4 cup kalamata olives, chopped or halved
- 1/2 cup flat-leaf parsley, chopped
- 1/4 cup dill, chopped (or sub mint, or use both!)
- Other optional additions: avocado, feta, radishes
Instructions
- Place quinoa, water and pinch of salt in a medium pot, bring to a boil, cover, simmer on low 12-15 minutes until all the water is gone. Uncover, fluff, cool slightly.
- Make the dressing by mixing all ingredients in a bowl. You can make this up to 3 days ahead and store in a jar in the fridge.
- Prep all the veggies. If sensitive to onions, dice, then soak in cold salted water while you chop the rest.
- Place the chickpeas, onions, cucumber, bell pepper, tomatoes, olives, dill and parsley to a large bowl. Add the cooled quinoa and the dressing and give a good toss.
- Taste, adjust salt and lemon to your liking. If making ahead, taste once more right before serving as the quinoa and chickpeas have a tendency to soak up the salt and lemon, so you might want to add a little more.
Notes
No preserved lemons? Substitute lemon zest from one medium lemon plus 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Add more lemon juice to taste.
Salad will keep 4 days in the fridge.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cup
- Calories: 253
- Sugar: 3.4 g
- Sodium: 607.4 mg
- Fat: 12.8 g
- Saturated Fat: 1.7 g
- Carbohydrates: 30.3 g
- Fiber: 6.1 g
- Protein: 7.5 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
It’s attic freeze weather here in Michigan, but this popped up in my email and I had just about everything to make it. It really hits the spot and makes me yearn for summer. Thanks for sharing!!
Thanks for the review Adrianne! Stay warm!
Another fab salad – and so healthy!!
Thanks, so happy you are enjoying!
I have been doing your meal prep nourishing bowls for years. Little tweaks for personal preference. My daughter liked the Sunshine Bowl especially and ate it five days a week.
I am hoping this one will also be a favourite. Queensland, Australia.
Love hearing this K!
Love this salad! Make it all the time during our long ,hot summers here in OZ. Thankyou Silvia for all of your generous, delicious recipes. They are my go-to as they are all fail safe, delicious and nutritious and my fussy teens will eat them( which is always a bonus). Happy New Year to you and those you love 💕
Happy New Year to you too Angela! And so happy you are enjoying the blog- and the salad!
Fantastic salad! I served it with some shawarma seasoned chicken thighs…a perfect meal!
Great to hear Susan!
Incredibly Quinoa salad!! Hard to stick to the one cup serving!! I served it with a Moroccan spiced chicken and everyone couldn’t get enough. Bravo, it’s one of my new favs. Thanks X
Sounds divine Gemma! Glad you enjoyed this!
I’ve made this recipe 3 times now–it’s always a hit. I’ve tried the dill version and the mint version. Both are good. Next time I may combine them. The preserved lemon and sumac are great. I like extra olives. Yum! Thanks for yet another wonderful recipe!
Thanks Laura, so nice of you to take time to review!
Do the preserved lemons (using your preserved lemon recipe) need to be rinsed before using? They must be quite saltyl. Thanks.
We don’t generally rinse but it is up to you! You can also go lite on salt add the lemon as is and then adjust the salad when it is finished.
Hearty, fresh, lovely & lemony. Perfect summer dinner salad or side!
Thanks Robin!
Easy salad to make with limited time on a weeknight. I didn’t have the preserved lemons, so I used a greek, lemony dressing I had from a recipe from one of your other recipes.
I like to make meal prep to carry my husband and me through the week, and this is making it to the top of our list as one of our options.
I can’t wait to make this for our next luncheon invites.
So glad you are enjoying. Thanks for letting us know Marilyn!
Makes a ton! Very easy and quick, Super tasty, healthy & colorful. Easy to make. I did not do the preserved lemons, I used zaatar seasoning as I did not have the sumac, also used couscous as no quinoa. I will make this for a gathering.
Love all your adaptions Lisa!
One of my favorites and I’ve yet to try it with preserved lemons.
Glad you are enjoying!
Loved this!
Yay!
Quinoa Chickpea Salad
This salad is sooo good! Made it last night and it was the perfect antidote to all the rich food of the holiday season. I love that your recipes are so flexible. I didn’t have preserved lemons but used extra Mayer lemon juice instead. Delicious, healthy and so refreshing! Thanks Sylvia!
Glad you enjoyed Jo!
What is the serving size for the nutrition? Thanks
1 cup. 🙂
You were right: this actually is my new favourite quinoa salad.
Awesome to hear Tracey!
Refreshing, flavorful, healthy and beautiful. A perfect summer dish!
Awesome to hear Karen- thanks!
6/5!! This is such a great dish! Thank you for introducing me to sumac (now a fave). I leave out the onion because of sensitivity in my hh and it is still fabulous. Perfect summer dish, love it tossed over arugula.
Awesome Gladie- I am so happy you like this one!
This quinoa salad was SOOOO good! It can be played with by adding veggies you have on hand- it’s very adaptable.
Thanks Monica!
This quinoa salad is fabulous!!! I added a little extra lemon and used crispy English cucumbers. I also added spices to my water (an Italian mixed spice with garlic, lemon, salt, oregano, parsley & a chicken roast spice with simalar spices and 2 tbsp of vegan butter). Basically you can’t go wrong with this dish by adding stuff to the quinoa water to jazz it up! Or just add broth instead of water like the recipe says.
Thanks Ronna!
Absolutely delicious. Thanks
Awesome, thanks!
So delicious, but the dressing blended, seemed quite thick, can I thin it out?
Yes, shoot the dressing best not blended. I might try to use it, toss it with the salad, and then add a little olive or water directly to the salad if needed.
Oh so delicious and healthy!! This is the first time I used preserved lemons and sumac. Love it!!!
so happy you gave this a go!
Wonderful quinoa salad- brought it to a potluck and it was a clear favorite. Nothing left!
Did you see the recipe card at the bottom of the post?
Hi Sylvia,
Yes, I could see the recipe but measurements were in cups which I am not familiar with. Anyway, I made the salad and it was delicious.
Many thanks
You can switch to metric- there is a tab at the top. 🙂
Wonderful! I had to improvise a lot since I didn’t have all the ingredients on hand, but it still turned out great!
Perfect Susie!