This chopped summer vegetable salad with chickpeas is one of the best salad you can make with beautiful summer tomatoes and cucumbers. This salad is loaded with fresh parsley and the flavour comes from balsamic vinegar and olive oil mixed with vegetables. The longer it sits and marinates the better salad taste! This quick no-lettuce salad is the perfect side to almost any entree.
Here’s what you need to make this chopped salad with chickpeas:
– Tomatoes: I used 5 larger Roma tomatoes. Pick tomatoes that are firm but have a little bit of give to them. Although some recipes require you to remove tomato seeds, you do not have to. Tip: If you’re tomatoes are too juicy or extra ripe, once you dice them, throw them in a colander to get rid of excess liquid.
– Cucumbers: Use 1 large English cucumber or 3 to 4 small cucumbers. Tip: Both varieties are seedless, sweeter in taste, and have soft skin so you won’t need to peel them. Do not use slicing cucumbers, which have a thick, waxy skin and can be bitter in flavor.
– Onions: In this recipe, I use medium-sized red onion. Tip: Try to chop the onions as finely as possible. If you prefer to use shallots, which are less pungent, that will work also.
– Chickpeas: I use about one tin of chickpeas to add extra protein to the salad. It tastes delicious and can be eaten as a main dish.
– Fresh Herbs: I use about one cup of fresh parsley here. You can use mint, parsley, soma basil or any combination that’s available to you. This is completely optional.
– Seasoning: I like to use only salt in this salad as the salad is very flavourful itself from the fresh ingredients. I use about 1 tsp of kosher sea salt.
-Dressing: Much like many Mediterranean salads, this salad does not require much but balsamic vinegar and quality extra virgin olive oil. You can also add lemon juice if you want it to be more acidic.
How To Make this Salad?
Finely dice the vegetables, but do not use a food processor or a chopper for that. The dice should be as fine as what you’d do for tabouleh salad.
Make the dressing. Just combine the olive oil with balsamic viengar and salt. If you want to emulsify the dressing, use a whisk but this step is not necessary nor traditionally done.
You can also add the dressing ingredients on top of the diced vegetables rather than whisk in a separate bowl, mix the salad very well.
Check out more recipes:
Chopped Salad with Chickpeas
Ingredients
- 5 medium size roma tomatoes
- 3-4 small cucumbers
- 1 cup fresh parsley
- 1 medium red onion
- 1 can chickpeas
Dressing
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 3-4 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 1 tsp salt
Instructions
- Chop all the vegetables very finely and trasfer to a big bowl.
- Add drained canned chickpeas.
- Add olive oil, balsamic vinegar and salt and mix everything together very well.
- Leave for 30 minutes for flavours to combine and serve. Enjoy!
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