This tasty vegan Mediterranean Quinoa Salad is made with chickpeas for a light but filling side dish/salad. Perfect for summer BBQs and cookouts.
Table of Contents
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Healthy
- Easy & Quick
- Meal-prep friendly
- Macro friendly
- Simple ingredients
Ingredients
- quinoa: any variety.
- chickpeas: I use canned. Easy!
- cherry tomatoes: or regular tomatoes, diced.
- olives: green, black, kalamata varieties work just as fine. You can even mix them!
- purple onion: finely diced.
- fresh basil leaves: dried basil is not good for this recipe.
- olive oil: sunflower seed oil or any neutral tasting oil is good, but since this is a Mediterranean recipe, olive oil is the best choice.
- lemon juice: fresh!
- balsamic vinegar: you can leave this out, if you don’t have any at home or sub with more red wine vinegar.
- red wine vinegar: you can leave this out, if you don’t have any at home or sub with more balsamic vinegar.
- salt, ground black pepper
How to Make
Step 1:
In a big bowl, combine cooked quinoa, cooked/canned chickpeas, olives, chopped red onion, cherry tomatoes and chopped fresh basil.
Step 2:
To make the dressing, simply whisk together olive oil, lemon juice, balsamic vinegar, red wine vinegar, ground black pepper and salt in a small bowl.
STEP 3:
Add the dressing to the salad and gently toss to combine.
Substitutions
Note: The nutritional info of this recipe is calculated with the original ingredients.
Chickpeas: You can use canned chickpeas to save time, but you can also cook them from scratch.
Olives: I prefer to use a mix of kalamata and black olives, but feel free to use any kind you prefer.
Cherry tomatoes: If you don’t have cherry tomatoes on hand, you can just dice a regular tomato.
FAQ
Yes, absolutely! You can make it ahead and keep it in the fridge for up to 3 days. Perfect for meal prep!
You can add the following ingredients to your salad to make them even more delicious: artichokes, cucumber, capers and vegan feta cheese.
More tasty vegan recipes:
Pesto Quinoa Salad
Mediterranean Lentil Salad
Italian Couscous Salad
More tasty vegan quinoa recipes:
One Pot Mexican Quinoa
Sweet Potato Black Bean Quinoa Bowl
Related vegan recipe roundups:
quinoa, chickpea, side dishes, dinner, Mediterranean, Italian, high protein
Mediterranean Quinoa Salad with Chickpeas
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups cooked quinoa
- 1 cup chickpeas (canned or cooked)
- 1 ½ cups quartered cherry tomatoes
- ½ cup olives (green, kalamata or black) (halved)
- ½ small red onion (finely chopped)
- 1 ½ cup fresh basil leaves (finely chopped)
Dressing
- 2 tsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 tsp red wine vinegar
- 1 tsp balsamic vinegar
- 1 ½ tsp salt (or to taste)
- ⅓ tsp ground black pepper
Instructions
- In a big bowl, combine cooked quinoa, cooked/canned chickpeas, olives, chopped red onion, cherry tomatoes and chopped fresh basil.
- To make the dressing, simply whisk together olive oil, lemon juice, balsamic vinegar, red wine vinegar, ground black pepper and salt in a small bowl.
- Add the dressing to the salad and gently toss to combine.
My family loved this salad. I used white onion and it was just as good. I will definitely make it again. A great summer salad with lots of flavour!
I’m so glad you liked it, Kathryn! 🙂 My favorite is purple onion but the white variety is just as good!
Made this as a main dish for vegetarian lunch. An excellent summer meal. Made it the night before. I layered the ingredients but didn’t mix or dress until right before eating. Cooked the quinoa in veggie broth and made it as directed in the green pea quinoa recipe. Was indeed fluffier than standard. Thanks very much. Wonderful recipe.
What are the nutrition facts to help with managing carbs.
Thank you thank you for this delicious recipe that is sure to become a family staple!
I’m glad you liked it Lila.
Delicious and fulfilling salad!🩷
Balsamic vingear dressing saves this dish! Adds more taste in my opinion! Try it out with that!
Just a fun tip: try this salad with vegan greek yogurt too, they go so well together!