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    Home / Salads

    Simple Chickpea Salad with Lemon Aquafaba Dressing

    Last updated: Jul 17, 2019 · Published: Jan 25, 2019 by Elizabeth Shah. This page may contain affiliate links.

    538 shares
    Jump to Recipe

    You may have noticed I'm on a bit of a fresh veggie kick lately. After all of the heavy holiday food in November and December, I'm still craving meals that are light, nutritious and SIMPLE. All you need to make this Simple Chickpea Salad with Lemon Aquafaba Dressing is about 15 minutes of time, some  fresh produce and chickpeas, and a good sharp knife. (Ok, you don't absolutely have to  have a good sharp knife, but it sure makes cutting lots of produce go much faster!)

    Simple chickpea salad in a wide bowl with green leaf trim, on marble with crossed fork and spoon and linens towel with black stripes.

     

    Simple chickpea salad in a wide bowl with green leaf trim, on marble with crossed fork and spoon and linens towel with black stripes.

    HOW TO MAKE A SIMPLE, OIL FREE DRESSING

    Right before creating this Simple Chickpea Salad with Lemon Aquafaba Dressing recipe, I was surfing one of my vegan / WFPB Facebook groups, and a guy was lamenting that he couldn't find a low calorie dressing he liked for his salads. It was pretty clear he really didn't want to make anything too complicated. Now, there are plenty of low-fat, oil-free dressing recipes out there, but it got me thinking, just how simply can we get this done?

    Bowl of chickpeas, lemon, tahini, celery, red onion half, purple cabbage half, avocado, orange bell pepper and serrano pepper on a striped wood cutting board on a black and white striped linen towel.

    Some people were commenting that he should just squeeze a bit of lemon on his salad--and I do that sometimes--but it is kind of nice to have a little something to tone down the acid in the lemon--without resorting to oil, of course. So, an aquafaba dressing seemed like the perfect solution!

    Why? Well, because it's a good idea to include some fiber and protein in your veggie salad, so chickpeas are a natural in a chopped salad like this one. (In past posts, I've shared how very healthy chickpeas are for us.) As an added bonus, chickpeas come with 'aquafaba'--a viscous liquid that most people probably just pour down the drain, but that just happens to work really well as an oil replacement in sauces and dressings.

    Which makes this Simple Chickpea Salad with Lemon Aquafaba Dressing a one-and-done kind of recipe!

    lemon aquafaba dressing in a light gray bowl with whisk and lemon half on black and white striped towel.

    Tip: For a creamy version of this salad, add a few dollops of Oil Free Vegan Mayo. Use the extra firm silken tofu or cashews.

    chopped chickpea salad veggies in a stainless steal bowl on striped towel.

    To make the aquafaba dressing for this simple chickpea salad as easy as possible, I limited it to only three ingredients--and even then, one ingredient (the tahini) can be substituted with whatever nut butter you have on hand, or omitted altogether if desired. You could even swap out the lemon for some vinegar if that's what you have. I've made it myriad ways and it's always good.

    simple chickpea salad on a bed of arugula and spinach in a wide white bowl on marble

    We've been making this Simple Chickpea Salad with Lemon Aquafaba Dressing non-stop at Chez-Shah lately. We like to eat it just as it is, and as a topping for greens--no additional dressing needed!

    If you like this recipe, you might also like:

    • 'Eat' Your Greens Pasta Salad
    • Watermelon and Forbidden Rice Salad
    • Smokey Vegan Rice & Beans
    • Quick & Easy Vegan Collard Greens
    • Oil Free Hummus
    • 'Everything' Vegan Gazpacho

    📖 Recipe

    Simple Chickpea Salad with Lemon Aquafaba Dressing

    A light, nutritious,15-minute chickpea salad with an oil-free lemon & aquafaba dressing. Perfect by itself or as a topper for fresh greens. 
    5 from 7 votes
    Print SaveSaved! Pin Rate
    Course: Salad
    Cuisine: American
    Prep Time: 15 minutes minutes
    Total Time: 15 minutes minutes
    Servings: 6
    Calories: 276kcal
    Author: Elizabeth Shah
    Prevent your screen from going dark

    Ingredients

    Lemon Aquafaba Dressing

    • ¼ cup aquafaba (liquid from canned or cooked chickpeas)
    • ½ lemon juiced and zested
    • 1 teaspoon tahini (or sub nut butter like almond, cashew, peanut, etc. Or omit to reduce fat, if desired)
    • Sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

    Chickpea Salad

    • 1 15- ounce can chickpeas--LIQUID RESERVED (or 1 ½ cups cooked)
    • 1 red orange or yellow bell pepper, diced
    • 2 celery stalks diced
    • ½ avocado ½ inch-cubed
    • 2 cups red cabbage chopped
    • ¼ red onion finely diced
    • ½ jalapeno or serrano finely diced
    • Optional: 2 tablespoons of fresh herbs like basil, parsley or mint
    US Customary - Metric

    Instructions

    To make the dressing

    • To a small mixing bowl, add the aquafaba, lemon juice and zest, and tahini, and whisk well. Add sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.

    To make the salad

    • To a large mixing bowl, add all of the chopped vegetables EXCEPT THE AVOCADO, herbs (if using) and the dressing, and toss well. Add the avocado last, and toss gently.
    • Serve as is or on top of greens.

    Nutrition (approximate)

    Calories: 276kcal | Carbohydrates: 29g | Protein: 7g | Fat: 4g | Sodium: 21mg | Potassium: 551mg | Fiber: 7g | Sugar: 6g | Vitamin A: 390IU | Vitamin C: 26.1mg | Calcium: 65mg | Iron: 3.2mg
    Tried this Recipe? Please share it!Mention @HealthyMidwesternGirl or tag #HealthyMidwesternGirl!

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    538 shares

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. James Strange

      November 03, 2019 at 9:50 pm

      5 stars
      Love the colors in the salad!

      Reply
      • Elizabeth Shah

        November 04, 2019 at 11:17 am

        Thanks so much, James! Eat the rainbow!!!

        Reply
    2. Brenda

      July 11, 2019 at 7:28 pm

      I thought I had invented aqua faba oil replacer. For my salad dressings. I thought I was brilliant. Then, just now I thought, maybe I didn't... a google search brought up your recipe! Well, can I say great plant based minds think alike??!! I mixed aqua faba, kite hill yogurt, nutritional yeast, sea salt, and some freshly made chickpeas. Used my stick blender. Tastsy. Lemon would be good in there too.

      Reply
      • Elizabeth Shah

        July 12, 2019 at 7:03 am

        Hi Brenda! That's pretty much what it's like to be a food blogger--you come up with something you're sure hasn't been done, then Google proves otherwise. Not sure that diminishes our creative brilliance in any way though. 🙂 Love your adaptations here. I have all those ingredients on hand so I'll give yours a try! Thanks for sharing, and have a lovely day.

        Reply
    3. Sharon

      February 07, 2019 at 6:14 am

      5 stars
      For me, no salad is complete without a dressing, but I know how quickly conventional dressings can ramp up the calories and fat content. I'd never thought of using aquafaba... that's ingenious! As you said, it's a product that often gets thrown away. It sounds like a winner all round and I'm excited to give it a try. Thank you so much for the inspiration xx

      Reply
      • elizabeth

        February 07, 2019 at 11:07 am

        You're so welcome! I had recently used aquafaba in a marinade for roasted cauliflower, and thought why not do the same in a simple salad dressing! I know I eat more salad when I have ingredients on hand to whip up a simple one.

        Reply
    4. Jacqueline Meldrum

      February 06, 2019 at 4:45 pm

      5 stars
      What a great way to cut down on fat in a recipe and it looks so colourful and delicious! Sharing!

      Reply
      • elizabeth

        February 07, 2019 at 11:06 am

        Thanks very much! Hope you enjoy.

        Reply
    5 from 7 votes (2 ratings without comment)

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    My husband calls me his "healthy Midwestern girl," because I LOVE TO EAT! Fortunately, I also love to cook. I'm so excited to share my 100% vegan, whole food, plant-based, no oil recipes with you! MORE...

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