One day I was looking for a fast lunch to whip up out of the fridge and I ended up making this Italian chickpea salad. I have made this salad over and over again because it is not only healthy, but incredibly easy as well.
This salad is based on the classic Italian chopped salad, but made vegan and with chickpeas instead of lettuce. It relies on a lot of jarred or canned ingredients that are easy to keep on hand in the pantry for when you need that fast lunch.
Ingredients like julienne-cut sundried tomatoes, sliced black olives, and quartered marinated artichoke hearts don’t require any prep work, keeping this recipe fast and simple!
I keep sliced banana peppers on hand for sandwiches and burgers, so I opted to use those in place of the pepperoncini. The pepperoncini’s would be more traditional, but I like the sweeter banana peppers better anyway. Choose what you prefer.
My red wine vinaigrette is what I use on almost all my salads. I jazzed up the dressing for this recipe with some Italian seasoning as well. It is so much better than the bottled stuff! Fresher, with just the right amount of mouth-puckering bite from the vinegar to brighten all the flavors of the salad without overwhelming.
Variations to the Italian Chickpea Salad recipe:
- The red bell pepper is the only fresh ingredient that I don’t always have on hand. Swap in some onion, preferably red onion, to make this salad when you don’t have the pepper.
- Make the salad in advance: The salad gets even better as it sits. The sun-dried tomatoes soften and the chickpeas absorb some of the flavors of the vinaigrette and vegetables. This salad is a great option to prep in advance for weekday work or school lunches.
- Quartered artichoke hearts: I suggest cutting up the artichoke hearts in the recipe because they are just so much larger than the rest of the ingredients. This is optional if you just don’t care or don’t have the time/energy for it.
- Watch Sodium Levels: Sodium on canned and jarred items can add up quickly. Watch the nutrient panel on the items you buy if that is a concern. Opt for no-salt-added chickpeas, low sodium olives, and plain (not marinated) artichoke hearts.
- ½ cup quartered marinated artichoke hearts
- 15 oz can chickpeas, drained
- ¼ cup sliced black olives
- ¼ cup sliced pepperoncini or diced jarred banana pepper slices
- 3-4 mini sweet red bell peppers, sliced, or ¼ cup diced red bell pepper
- ¼ cup julienne cut sundried tomatoes (I used dry packed, not oil packed)
- 2 TBS each: red wine vinegar and olive oil
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- ½ tsp Dijon mustard
- ¼ tsp each: salt, black pepper, and Italian seasoning
- Start by cutting the artichoke hearts into smaller pieces. I like to cut each quarter in half so most of the heart stays intact, but you could also chop them up into bite sized pieces.
- Mix together the artichoke hearts, chickpeas, black olives, both types of peppers, and sun dried tomatoes.
- Whish together all the vinaigrette ingredients including: red wine vinegar, olive oil, garlic, Dijon, salt, pepper and Italian seasoning.
- Pour the vinaigrette over the chickpea mixture and stir to coat. The salad can be eaten right away, or you can let it sit for the flavors to develop.
