Mediterranean Chickpea Salad with Almond Feta

I’m gonna get downgraded to a Level 6 Vegan for this, but I’m not much of a salad person. I have approximately 8 salad recipes on this entire website and I use that term pretty loosely; only about 1.5 out of 8 of the salad recipes are even made out of something leafy. Today we’re incrementing that number to 9 with another non-leafy salad: this Mediterranean chickpea salad with almond feta. (P.S. looking through the salad archive was a nice compact trip down memory lane w.r.t. the improvements in my food photography over the years…)

We experienced a record-nearing streak of 15 consecutive days of rain in early May, and now that the world is no longer permanently damp, I’ve been spending most of my spare time running (I have an ultramarathon coming up in July), biking, and playing soccer or tennis. Consequently, it feels like there’s not enough water in the world to keep me hydrated and my cravings lean heavily toward foods that are cold and comprised of vegetables and other things with natural water content.

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I actually last made this Mediterranean chickpea salad a few weeks ago, pairing it with my baked almond feta and planning to share them both in quick succession; thanks to life getting in the way a delay happened there. But looking at the pictures again I’m reminded of how very delicious, satisfying, and refreshing this dish is, and planning to make another batch soon.

Creamy chickpeas, fresh herbs, sundried tomatoes, plump olives, and of course, salty and tangy almond feta, are the main stars of this dish. I added artichoke hearts as well; now that the summer produce is coming to life a little more, I think some other nice additions could be fresh red bell pepper, cucumber, and/or tomato. This Mediterranean chickpea salad is great for mixing and matching because all of the flavors just click together without much effort. If you don’t want to go to the effort, you can even skip the almond feta. I won’t tell!

June and July may be relatively quiet here on the blog, because I’m going to be moving later this month; and the kitchen at my new place doesn’t actually have appliances yet… but in addition to this Mediterranean chickpea salad I have one more delicious, fresh summer ‘salad’ recipe that is ready to be shared, and I’m trying to cram in a little bit more recipe development before things get crazy in a couple of weeks. So we’ll see how it goes! Happy almost-summer!

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Mediterranean Chickpea Salad with Almond Feta

Light, refreshing, and simple-to-make vegan Mediterranean chickpea salad. Packed with flavor from olives, sundried tomatoes, almond "feta", and a bright lemon dressing. Gluten-free recipe.

Course lunch, Salad

Cuisine gluten-free, grain-free, vegan, vegetarian

Keyword mediterranean chickpea salad

Prep Time 10 minutes

Total Time 10 minutes

Total Yield 4 side servings

Calories Per Serving 170 kcal

Author Yup, it's Vegan

Ingredients

For the Mediterranean chickpea salad:

• 2 tbsp minced red onion soaked in cold water for 5 minutes and then drained
• 3 oz chopped olives
• 3 tbsp chopped sundried tomatoes (rehydrated if needed)
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley loosely packed
• 1 and 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas (16 oz.)
• 8 oz chopped artichoke hearts
• 1 cup baked almond feta (1/2 of the recipe)

For the dressing:

• 3 tbsp freshly-squeezed lemon juice
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1/2 tbsp prepared mustard
• 2 tbsp drained liquid leftover from making the almond feta (link above); or 1 tbsp plain/unsweetened nondairy yogurt; or 1 tbsp additional olive oil
• 1 pinch dried oregano
• salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Whisk together all of the ingredients for the dressing, and season to taste.
2. Optional: if you'd like to serve this Mediterranean chickpea salad as a sandwich filling, I recommend gently smashing and roughly chopping the chickpeas before proceeding to the next step.
3. In a mixing bowl, toss together the dressing with all of the other ingredients except for the almond feta.
4. Roughly chop or crumble the almond feta and fold it in. Serve at room temperature or cold. Leftovers will keep in the fridge for up to a week.

Recipe Notes

This recipe has a higher ratio of other-stuff-to-chickpeas than many chickpea salad recipes do, which is basically due to my personal preference. You can easily double the amount of chickpeas and it will still come out well and be a little bit more filling.

The 10-minute prep time listed does not include time to make the almond feta. You can feel free to omit the almond feta if you don't want to prepare it.

Nutrition facts exclude the almond feta. Separate nutrition information is available on that recipe page 🙂

Nutrition Facts

Mediterranean Chickpea Salad with Almond Feta

Amount Per Serving (1 fourth recipe)

Calories 170 Calories from Fat 54

% Daily Value*

Total Fat 6g 9%

Polyunsaturated Fat 1g

Monounsaturated Fat 3g

Sodium 324mg 14%

Potassium 408mg 12%

Total Carbohydrates 23g 8%

Dietary Fiber 7g 28%

Sugars 4g

Protein 7g 14%

Vitamin A 7%

Vitamin C 23%

Calcium 6%

Iron 11%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.