My Go-To Greek Chickpea Salad

This greek chickpea salad is my go-to salad any day! It’s filled with tangy kalamata olives, cherry tomatoes, and chickpeas for protein. It’s perfect for serving as a healthy lunch or alongside your favorite weeknight dinner!

Greek salad has been a favorite of mine for years! And this specific chickpea version is one I make ALL the time. It’s my go-to for adding to lunches or serving with any weeknight dinner.

Traditional greek salad is made with really simple ingredients – tomato, kalamata olives, feta cheese, red onion, cucumbers, and olive oil with salt & pepper. This version adds a little bit more with chickpeas for plant protein, more greens, and a greek salad dressing with fresh herbs to add another layer of flavor.

It’s one of my personal favorites to make every week, and I hope it becomes one of yours too!

Salad Ingredients

Below you’ll find the full list of ingredients needed to make this salad!

Greens: I prefer to use a mixture of mixed greens, but you can also use arugula, spinach, or kale.
Chickpeas: you’ll need cooked chickpeas – I love to use this brand!
Cucumber: very common in traditional greek salads.
Red onion: also a must! If the red onion flavor is too intense for you, you can marinade the chopped onion in the dressing before serving. This helps mild out the onion flavor!
Kalamata olives: these tangy olives are a classic ingredient for greek salads! Buy pitted olives to make chopping easier.
Tomatoes: cherry tomatoes are my favorite to use!
Greek dressing: Use a simple homemade dressing for this salad that sings with flavor!

Easy Homemade Greek Dressing

Skip the store-bought dressing, and make your own at home with this simple greek dressing recipe! It’s full of pantry staples to make it easy, and it’s full of bright & tangy flavor. This salad dressing is ALWAYS in my pantry, and it only takes minutes to make.

The ingredients needed to make the dressing are – quality olive oil, red wine vinegar, garlic powder (or fresh garlic), fresh or dried oregano, maple syrup, and salt & pepper!

Tips for Success

Other veggies and herbs we love to add. This salad is so easy to customize! We love to add creamy avocado, roasted red peppers, or diced raw red bell pepper, as well as microgreens. For herbs, I love to add chopped fresh basil, thyme, or parsley to the dressing!

Make it with or without feta. Traditional greek salad is always topped with crumbles of tangy feta cheese – which I love! But since I make this salad so much, I don’t always want to serve it with cheese every time. So, if you’d like to make this salad vegan/dairy-free friendly, leave the feta out! But if you’d like it to taste like a traditional feta, by all means, add it!

How to make it ahead of time. The best way to make this salad in advance is to chop all of the ingredients and separate them individually into containers or plastic ziplock bags. Refrigerate until ready to serve, then assemble the salad and serve! If the salad is prepared as a whole too far in advance, the vegetables can become too soft and wilted as they sit together. Keeping them separate will ensure they keep their texture and proper flavor!

Store dressing at room temperature. This salad dressing is best kept at room temperature rather than stored in the refrigerator! We keep it sealed in a mason jar for up to 2 weeks at a time. If you use fresh herbs, they will lose their bright color the longer the dressing sits, but the flavor shouldn’t change.

What to Serve it With

This salad goes well with so many dishes! But some of my favorite dishes to serve it with are Rosemary Lemon Chicken with Potatoes, Lemon Chicken Piccata, and Crispy Herb Chicken Thighs.

Add protein – if you would like to serve just the salad alone, you can add protein such as grilled or roasted chicken, grilled or roasted salmon, or any type of white fish!