Chickpea Cucumber Salad

5 from 1 vote

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Quick and easy, this chickpea cucumber salad is a fresh, cool recipe that can be a side dish or a main dish salad. It has sliced Persian cucumbers, canned chickpeas, diced red onions, crumbled feta cheese and lots of chopped parsley all tossed in red wine vinaigrette. You can make it in just 10 minutes, and the leftovers are fantastic, too.

Also try this cucumber tomato feta salad when you’re in full summer salad mode.

Chickpea cucumber salad on a plate.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

This salad is refreshing, crisp and filling. Cucumbers are such a great ingredient when it’s hot outside, and you’re looking for something other than lettuce in a salad.

There’s no risk of wilting because this recipe doesn’t have leafy greens. Make it for potlucks, picnics, cookouts and other summer get-togethers where food tends to sit out longer.

You can turn it into a pasta salad or a grain salad and make other additions to customize it. Try stirring in short pasta shapes or cooked grains like quinoa, barley or pearl couscous. If you have tomatoes, red peppers or other fresh vegetables, you can add them.

The Ingredients

Ingredients including cucumbers, chickpeas, feta, parsley, lemon, red onions, olive oil, vinegar and spices.

This is what you need:

  • Cucumbers: Thinner and much smaller than regular cucumbers, Persian cucumbers, also labeled as mini cucumbers, are a solid choice for salads. Their skin is more delicate, and they have fewer seeds. English cucumbers are a good substitute. You want to end up with around 3 cups of sliced cucumbers for the salad.
  • Chickpeas, also known as garbanzo beans, are one of my favorite canned pantry goods. Once you open the can, dump out the chickpeas into a colander and rinse them with cold water. As you pat them dry, pull off any loose skins.
  • Red onions: Chop the onions finely. Then they will mix well with the rest of the ingredients.
  • Feta gives the salad a salty and briny accent. You can substitute with goat cheese.
  • Parsley: There are fresh herbs in every bite because the recipe calls for a quarter cup of chopped parsley. You can also use fresh dill.
  • Red wine vinaigrette: I add sumac to my usual vinaigrette recipe with minced garlic, whole grain mustard, dried oregano, salt, pepper, lemon juice and olive oil. Sumac has a bright, tart taste.

Optional Additions

The salad is wonderful as written, but you can make one or more of the following additions:

  • Quinoa, barley or pearl couscous
  • Pasta, short shapes such as orecchiette
  • Diced avocados
  • Pitted kalamata olives, whole or chopped
  • Cherry tomatoes or grape tomatoes, halved
  • Red bell peppers, diced
  • Baby arugula or spinach

How To Make This Chickpea Cucumber Salad

1. Combine the salad ingredients in a large bowl. That includes the cucumbers, chickpeas, red onions, feta and parsley.

2. Make the vinaigrette. Stir the minced garlic, mustard, sumac, oregano, salt, pepper, red wine vinegar, lemon juice and oil in a small bowl.

Salad ingredients in a large bowl. Vinaigrette in a small bowl.

3. Drizzle the vinaigrette into the salad. Toss everything together.

Salad tossed with vinaigrette in a large bowl.

Serving

You can serve this cucumber chickpea salad as a side dish with BBQ tofu veggie skewers, grilled tofu shawarma or roasted mediterranean vegetables and halloumi. It is also filling enough to be a main dish salad especially if you add cooked grains or another addition from the list above.

Storage & Leftovers

You can store the salad in an airtight container in the refrigerator up to 3 days. The cucumbers will lose a little of their crispness. If you want, you can pour the salad dressing that collects in the bottom of the bowl into a separate container from the salad leftovers. This will help it maintain more of its crunch.

Cucumber chickpea salad in a small bowl.

Recipe Tips

Use Persian cucumbers or English cucumbers. Just repeating this because it’s important. Regular cucumbers have thicker skin and more seeds than these varieties, so when you are using cucumbers as the salad base it’s best to go with Persian or English.

You can make the vinaigrette in advance, but wait to cut the cucumbers and onions. Keep the dressing in a mason jar or another airtight container in the refrigerator up to 2 days. Let it sit out at room temperature for 15 minutes before you plan to use it.

Even though it’s not required, I like to pull the skins off all the chickpeas. Some will come off pretty easily when you rinse and drain them and pat them dry with a towel. Removing the skins gives you the best texture and appearance for the salad.

More Chickpea Salad Recipes

Chickpea Greek Salad
Roasted Vegetable Chickpea Pasta Salad
Kale Sweet Potato Salad with Chickpeas
Quinoa Chickpea Salad with Roasted Tomatoes
Italian Chopped Salad
Mediterranean Bean Salad

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Chickpea Cucumber Salad

5 from 1 vote
Prep: 10 minutes
Total: 10 minutes
Servings: 4
Quick and easy, this chickpea cucumber salad has sliced Persian cucumbers, canned chickpeas, diced red onions, crumbled feta cheese and lots of chopped parsley all tossed in red wine vinaigrette.

Ingredients 

For salad

  • 6 Persian cucumbers, sliced 1/4-inch-thick (about 3 cups)
  • 1 15-ounce can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
  • 1/4 cup finely chopped red onions
  • 1/3 cup crumbled feta cheese
  • 1/4 cup chopped parsley

For vinaigrette

  • 1 garlic clove, minced
  • 1 tablespoon whole grain mustard
  • 1/2 teaspoon sumac
  • 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
  • 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
  • Juice of 1 lemon
  • 1/4 cup olive oil

Instructions 

  • In a large bowl, combine the cucumbers, chickpeas, red onions, feta and parsley.
  • For the vinaigrette, whisk the garlic, mustard, sumac, oregano, salt, pepper red wine vinegar, lemon juice and olive oil.
  • Drizzle the vinaigrette into the salad tossing to combine. 

Notes

Store leftovers in the fridge up to 3 days. To keep the salad more crisp, pour the excess dressing from the bottom of the serving bowl into another container and keep it separate from the salad.
Optional Additions:
  • Quinoa, barley or pearl couscous
  • Pasta, short shapes such as orecchiette
  • Diced avocados
  • Pitted kalamata olives, whole or chopped
  • Cherry tomatoes or grape tomatoes, halved
  • Red bell peppers, diced
  • Baby arugula or spinach

Nutrition

Calories: 350kcal | Carbohydrates: 34g | Protein: 12g | Fat: 19g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 3g | Monounsaturated Fat: 11g | Cholesterol: 11mg | Sodium: 487mg | Potassium: 491mg | Fiber: 9g | Sugar: 7g | Vitamin A: 491IU | Vitamin C: 10mg | Calcium: 142mg | Iron: 4mg

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

Additional Info

Course: Salads
Cuisine: Mediterranean
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Hi, I'm Paige.

Welcome to Last Ingredient where you will find simple seasonal recipes with plenty of fruits and vegetables, all for the home cook.

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3 Comments

  1. The Persian cucumber, chickpeas salad is very refreshing
    on a warm summer day! This recipe is outstanding!

  2. Delicious! The flavors complimented our summer dinner. I added 1 cup cooked quinoa and one diced red pepper for extra texture. So yummy! Everyone loved it!