You’ll be shocked at the amount of flavor in this 20 minute inspired Turkish chickpea salad. Summer meal prep level up!
Want to Save This Recipe?
Enter your email & we'll send it to your inbox. Plus you’ll get great new recipes from us every week.
Summer time means you don’t really feel like cooking, but you might be willing to spend 10-15 minutes in the kitchen to prep something if it lasts for the week. If that’s you, then this vegan inspired Turkish chickpea salad is right up your alley.
I’ll be completely honest that this is inspired by Turkish recipes with my own spin on things and not completely authentic to Turkey recipe spices or ingredients.
Still, this recipe is amazing. It’s packed with flavor and nutrients that will not only taste delicious but be great for your body as well!
It’s perfect for meal prep throughout the summer or for cookouts and get-togethers as well!
Jump to:
Why You’ll Love This Dish
- Easy – This recipe only takes 20 minutes to make!
- Great for Meal Prep – this is one of those recipes that only gets better with time which is perfect for meal prep as you can make it 3-5 days in advance and use as needed
- Gluten Free and Allergen Friendly – this recipe is completely Top 9 Allergen Free which means it’s a great option to serve
🥘Recipe Ingredients
Gather your ingredients!
- Chickpeas – This simple ingredient is the star of the dish and perfect for texture variation and protein.
- Olive Oil – You want a healthier oil for this recipe since you are going to be making a sauce with the oil and scraping as much of it out of the skillet as possible.
- Onions – We are using sweet onions for this recipe. We are playing a spin on a sumac onion recipe that usually uses red onions, but since we are cooking these we are using sweet.
- Sun Dried Tomatoes – We use sundried tomatoes in oil for more flavor.
- Garam Masala – not a typical Turkish ingredient that the flavor in garam masala pair perfectly with this recipe.
- Sumac – is an amazing spice that we recommend adding to your spice cabinet. It has some sweet and tangy notes that really help to elevate dishes it’s adding too.
- Red Wine Vinegar – we are adding red wine vinegar for the sauce component of the dish since it has more smoky notes that go well with this dish.
See my recipe card below for a complete list of the ingredients with measurements.
Substitutions and Variations:
- Chickpeas – You could do this with white beans as well, but they don’t hold up as well during the cooking process so keep that in mine. Bite size pieces of cauliflower could also be used into or as an addition.
- Olive Oil – Grapeseed or Avocado oil would be good alternatives.
- Onions – You can use red onions for this dish, but note during cooking, red onions typically turn gray which may look appetizing.
- Sun Dried Tomatoes – You can use dried sundried tomatoes if you hydrated them first. Note, that there will be some flavor differences.
- Red Wine Vinegar – apple cider vinegar or balsamic vinegar would be a substitute for this
- Stretch this meal – Feel free to add more vegetables like carrots or celery to this, or something like tofu or mushrooms would be a good addition if you like them to stretch this. Alternatively, putting this mixture over noodles, rice, or in a tortilla wrap can also help.
Step by Step Instructions for vegan Turkish chickpea salad:
Step 1. In a large skillet over medium heat, add oil and then add the chickpeas. Stir to coat the chickpeas in oil for 1 minute. Add spices and cook for 5 minutes until chickpeas are red and fragrant. Pour chickpeas, scraping all the spices from the pan, into a large bowl.
Step 2. In the same skillet, over medium heat, add remaining oil. Then, add the onions and garlic. Stir frequently and cook for 3-4 minutes until the onions are slightly soft and the garlic is fragrant.
Step 3. Add the red peppers, sundried tomatoes and ½ teaspoon salt. Stir and cook for 2 minutes.
Step 4. Remove from heat. Let cool slightly, then add red wine vinegar and remaining spices. Stir together well.
Step 5. Add vegetables to the chickpeas, along with the red cabbage, cilantro, basil, and lemon juice.
Step 6. Mix together well. Serve cold or warm.
Recipe FAQs:
Yes. This recipe is already written to be Top 9 Free.
Yes. Once made, let cool completely and you can store in an air tight container in the fridge for 3-4 days.
Yes, just make sure to use a large enough pot to hold all your ingredients.
No, we don’t recommend freezing this dish.
Other Vegan Salad Recipes to Consider:
More Recipes To Try
Did you make and love this recipe?
Click the 5 stars in the recipe card above or below in the comment section! This is a great way to support us so we can continue to bring great recipes!
🥳 Get the Full Recipe
Turkish Chickpea Salad
Ingredients
For the Chickpeas
- 4 tablespoon olive oil, divided
- 15 oz chickpeas, cooked, drained and rinsed*
- 1 teaspoon garam masala
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon turmeric
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper, more or less to taste
For the Vegetables
- 1 sweet onion, thinly sliced
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 red pepper, thinly sliced
- 2 tablespoon sun dried tomatoes in oil, finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon sumac
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
- ½ teaspoon chili powder
- ½ teaspoon cumin
- ½ teaspoon vegan sugar, optional
- 1 cup red cabbage, chopped
- 1 cup cilantro, chopped (sub with parsley if needed)
- 5-6 fresh basil leaves, choped
- 2 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
Instructions
- In a large skillet over medium heat, add 2 tablespoon oil and then add the chickpeas. Stir to coat the chickpeas in oil for 1 minute. Add all the chickpea spices (garam masala to pepper) and cook for 5 minutes until chickpeas are red and fragrant. Pour chickpeas, scraping all the spices from the pan, into a large bowl.
- In the same skillet, over medium heat, add remaining oil. Then, add the onions and garlic. Stir frequently and cook for 3-4 minutes until the onions are slightly soft and the garlic is fragrant. Add the red peppers, sundried tomatoes, 1 tablespoon sumac and ½ teaspoon salt. Stir and cook for 2 minutes.
- Remove from heat. Let cool slightly, then add red wine vinegar and remaining spices (chili powder to sugar). Stir together well. Add vegetables to the chickpeas, along with the red cabbage, cilantro, basil, and lemon juice. Mix together well. Serve cold or warm.
This recipe was really tasty. Very happy I tried it. One note for anyone for paying attention to the nutritional values: the estimates for this recipe seem to be way off. I put the recipe in MFP and got 544 calories, 20.5 g protein, 22.1 g fat, and 70.9 g net carbs for 4 servings.
Thanks for your feedback. One reason we say the recipes are estimates are because EVERY online calculator uses different values, some lower, some higher and it’s just really difficult to give an accurate look without uses all the same brands.
Made this for lunch today! Didn’t have sumac, so used za’atar instead. Grated carrots and radishes over to top – YUM!!!
yum!
Really delicious, thank you.
I make this often. I’ve even found a supplier of sumac and have become a regular! (I’m in South Africa and it’s not widely found in supermarkets).
I’m so happy to hear that it’s working for you!
Oh.
my.
Goddd.
I have died and gone to heaven.
First time using Sumac… not a Vegan,but Vegan-curious… and this dish sells it, and then some.
I had no idea how amazing this was going to be. Totally off the charts. The spices… wow. The texture, wow. I’d never in a million years think to combine Cilantro and Basil together…
Thank you so much for this.
Honesty, it was a life changing experience.
I don’t over leave comments but I just had to tell you, Bravo!!!
I found your husband’s YouTube channel and binged (which led me to here)… and I can’t wait to try more of ya’lls recipes!
I also plan to make huge batches of these spice blends to have on hand and make prep for next time much quicker!
Thanks again to you both, please keep it up!
So happy to hear all of this Jess. It makes us thrilled that you just loved it so much!
Your top 10 recipes of 2023 look amazing and I hope to make each one. I made Vegetable Biryani tonight, it was delicious!! Thanks!!
For some reason I am having trouble pinning your recipes off of your website, I’m getting the links from your YouTube channel. Thanks again!
Sorry to hear that, are you still having any issues?
I’m addicted to this salad, making it at least once a week. So delicious! Don’t forget the sumac, it makes the difference. Thanks for the recipe!
yay!
what are the quantities for each ingredients?
The recipe card with quantities is right above where you commented. Or at the top of the page you can click on the “JUMP TO RECIPE” button
Wow, this dish is truly delicious. You are a master..
The flavours were amazing, love a healthy salad. Only thing I changed was I reduced the olive oil to a spray version to reduce the calories.
Thank you x
So glad you enjoyed it!
It takes a little bit of time to prep but it is well worth it! Thank you so much for helping me enjoy some awesome healthy food.
So glad you liked it!