Chickpea Cucumber Feta Salad is soo light and fresh. With mint, dill, lemon, and onions. A great summer salad that's filling and super healthy!
This Greek Chickpea Salad is made with dried chickpeas. Though you can use canned ones as well. The fact is, canned chickpeas do not exist in Greece. We boil all of our legumes from scratch. Which is not any difficult to do really.
Table Of Contents
Cooking Dried Chickpeas
Chickpeas or garbanzo beans (which are the same thing) require some overnight soaking in water to cook and soften properly. To this water add a pinch of salt.
Or you can do a quick soak if you are really in a hurry. By covering chickpeas with water and bringing them to a boil. Then take them off the heat and allow them to soak covered for about 1-2 hours.
You can even add some baking soda to the water to help chickpeas absorb water. Use about 1 teaspoon of baking soda for every 3 cups of dried chickpeas.
Once soaking is over, rinse the chickpeas with plenty of water.
To cook chickpeas for salad cover with water and bring them to a boil. Then drop the heat to a low simmer, season with salt, and allow them to cook covered for about 1-2 hours. Alternatively, use a pressure cooker to cook them. They take about 15-20 minutes on high.
Recipe Tip: You can toss a lemon cup (the one you juiced for the salad), a clove of garlic, or half an onion into the water you boil the chickpeas in to give them additional flavor.
Using Canned Chickpeas For Salad
If you want to use canned chickpeas for salad just make sure you rinse them well first. To remove most of the sodium (since feta cheese is pretty salty as well).
Ingredients
The ingredients to make this Chickpea Greek salad recipe are dried or canned chickpeas, feta cheese, cucumber, red onion, spearmint (you can use mint instead, spearmint has a less strong flavor) dill, lemon juice + zest, extra virgin olive oil, and red wine vinegar.
I know when you hear of a Greek salad tomatoes and olives are probably the first ingredients that come to your mind. This Greek chickpea salad is more of a herby-lemony flavored one. Though you can always add the Greek salad ingredients to it as well. And if you like chickpeas you may also enjoy this Chickpea salad with Tahini dressing and feta cheese.
Additional Ingredients that you may add to Greek Chickpea salad are:
- cherry tomatoes
- olive slices, or chopped pitted olives
- arugula
- green bell pepper
- sweetcorn (roasted is best)
- romaine lettuce or iceberg
Chickpea Greek Salad Nutrition
This salad apart from the sodium part which comes with the salty feta cheese, is a really healthy and nutritious one. Like any garbanzo bean salad, it contains a good amount of protein almost 15 grams per cooked cup of chickpeas.
Also, it's packed with fiber 12.5 grams of, carbs 45 grams, and 4 grams of fat (again per cooked cup of chickpeas). Plus lots of Vitamins and Minerals like Manganese, Folate, Copper, Iron, Zinc, Phosphorus, Magnesium, Thiamine, Calcium, Selenium, Potassium, and Vitamin B6.
Additionally, this chickpea and feta salad is a great lunch that will keep you feeling full all day because of the amount of fiber and protein it contains.
Storing
Keep chickpeas and feta salad leftovers in an airtight food container in the fridge for up to 48 hours. You can't keep this salad for a longer period of time because the cucumber softens and the garbanzo beans tend to lose their flavor the longer they sit in the fridge.
Serve With
You can add this Greek garbanzo bean salad inside tortilla wraps or make collard wraps similar to these.
If you're looking for a few additional, healthy Greek appetizers to serve it with, try any of these: Tzatziki Dip, Stuffed Vine Leaves, Eggplant Dip, Skordalia.
Recipe
Chickpea Cucumber Feta Salad
Ingredients
- 3 cups (500 grams / 17.6 ounces) boiled or canned Chickpeas see the text above for boiling instructions
- 300 grams (2 cups) cucumbers peeled and diced 1 cm / ⅓ inch thick
- 70 grams (½ cup) red onion finely chopped
- 2 ½ tablespoons dill minced
- 2 teaspoons spearmint minced
- 6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil + extra to drizzle on top (optional)
- 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- ½ lemon zested
- 3 teaspoons red wine vinegar
- 160 grams (1 cup) feta cheese crumbled
- salt and pepper
Instructions
- Mix all of the ingredients in a large salad bowl.
- Refrigerate for 30 minutes to one hour for the flavors to combine.
- Serve with an extra drizzle of olive oil if you like, and enjoy!
Just made this recipe and it is delicious! I agree with another commentator. I would use the dressing on a whole lot of other things and not just salads.
Nutrition info states “one serving”, but how much is that?
Hi Kathy, it's calculated after dividing the salad to 6 servings!
Fresh, light, and tasty. Best salad recipe I've tried in years. I can't stop adding the dressing to everything.
Quick. Easy. Fresh. Delicious!
Fantastic recipe, loved the taste 🙂 We added about 1/4 cup of pomegranate for a pop of color.
I li e everything about this salad! It’s fresh, it’s filling, and it’s incredibly flavorful. My new favorite side/snack/lunch.
Side note - I live with a couple of people who would not normally go for this salad. One is an adult who generally reaches for junk food and the other a 13 yo who hates the smell of feta. The adult couldn’t stop raving and the kid doesn’t want to talk about it but can’t stop eating it. ❤️
Oh, it makes me so happy to hear that Stacia. Thank you!
Hi! Can you use white wine vinegar instead of red wine vinegar? Basalmic?
Hi Alayna, sure, white vinegar, apple cider vinegar can be used. Even Balsamic though that's last case scenario for me!
So delicious and easy to put together. Perfect summer salad!
Glad you like it Constance!
Very light and refreshing in the heat of the summer.
Cool refreshing summer salad with lots of protein! Everyone at dinner loved it
Glad to hear Bethy!
So refreshing and good!
I made this tiday. Absolutely delicios
How could it be 554kcal per serving?????
Hi Layla, 3 cups of chickpeas are 1164 kcal, 6 tablespoons of olive oil are 743 kcal, 100 grams feta cheese is 265 kcal, divided by 4 is 543. The remaining 11 kcal are from the remaining ingredients.