Smashed Chickpea Salad

This Smashed Chickpea Salad is the absolute best and easy lunch recipe! Made with just a few simple ingredients, it’s delicious, loaded with veggies + fiber and best on top of a piece of golden toasted bread!

This recipe has seriously been a lifesaver these past few months. 

I don’t know about y’all, but I usually try to plan dinners throughout the week – at least a “soft” plan to know what to have, grocery shop for etc. 

One thing, however, that I never really plan for is lunches during the week. 

And of course I always find myself standing in front of the cabinets or fridge ravenously hungry at 12:00 PM every single day thinking we have nothing to eat or how I don’t want leftovers another day. 

So when I decided to give this Smashed Chickpea Salad recipe a whirl, I kind of just used what I had on hand both in our cabinets and fridge and it turned out SO delicious. 

Why You’ll Love This Dish: 

First off – I love that this dish is so quick to whip up. Seriously – like I mentioned above, I really don’t like spending a lot of time on lunches each day – so the fact that this one comes together so quickly works great for me. 

Another reason? It’s so versatile! I often use just whatever veggies I have in my fridge that I think would go well with it – it doesn’t have to be the *exact* same recipe every time which keeps it fresh and fun! 

I love the protein and starch from the chickpeas – it really helps emulsify everything together and the texture of the smashed chickpeas is DELISH. This is a great alternative if you are vegetarian and may be missing tuna. 

I used mayonnaise for this recipe because hi, mayonnaise is my favorite ever condiment. It makes this dish creamy but not like “overly” creamy to the point where you feel like you’re eating gobs of it if that makes sense? 

Another condiment I love to use in this is a bit of dijon mustard! It really adds a delightful “tang” and zip of flavor. 

You add a few other pantry spices – really whatever floats your boat but I particularly loved garlic powder and of course, the classic staples: salt and pepper. 

The squeeze of lemon at the end really gives it that POP! 

And then load it on a piece of hearty bread…how can you go wrong with this?! Let’s get into how you make it! 

Ingredients You Need: 

• Can of chickpeas, drained
• Mayonnaise 
• Dijon Mustard 
• Red onion 
• Garlic powder + salt and pepper 
• Fresh lemon 
• High quality bread
• Arugula (or any type of fresh greens) 

Best Tips for Making Chickpea Salad: 

Start by making sure that your chickpeas are drained and rinsed (if desired)! 

You can absolutely just leave them intact if you’re running behind and don’t have time to mash them – but the flavors you get from mashing them is undeniable! 

Add the chickpeas to a large bowl and the  grab either a fork or a potato masher and mash until the desired consistency is reached. 

Quickly dice about ¼ cup of red onion into small bite size pieces – I almost minced mine so that there wouldn’t be large chunks of onion. 

To the bowl with the chickpeas, add in the onion as well as the other ingredients – the mayo, dijon mustard, garlic powder and pinch of salt and pepper. Mix together. 

Squeeze half of a lemon into the mixture and mix. 

Time to taste! If you think it needs more creaminess, add more mayo! More zing? Add more mustard! Not salty enough? Add salt! I always encourage you to TASTE and adjust to your liking 🙂 

And then – time to toast your bread! I got this delicious multigrain seeded bread for Lidl and it made the BEST toast. You want something HEARTY that will be able to really hold up this chickpea salad. 

Once it’s toasted, I like to add a layer of arugula or any other greens and then generously scoop the chickpea salad on top. 

This should make at least 2-3 servings, depending on how large your servings are! And it’s oh so delicious! 

Time to devour! Enjoy every bite! 🙂

Storing Leftovers: 

To store leftovers, simply add to a tupperware container with a tightly sealed lid and keep in the fridge for up to 3 days. You might have to add a squeeze of fresh lemon or a dollop of mayo to really help liven it up when you eat it as leftovers but it’s still just as yummy!

Did you enjoy this recipe? Here are a few others you might like: 

Chickpea Curry

Marinated Greek Chickpea Bowls

Simple Pesto Grilled Cheese

Thank you so much for following along here, friends! Want to see more? Be sure to follow ourbalancedbowl on Instagram and tag me with your photo if you end up making a recipe! You can also post a photo of your recipe to the Our Balanced Bowl Facebook page! Like a recipe that you saw? Follow me on Pinterest here! I always love to see your re-creations! If you do make a recipe, it would make my whole day if you were to rate and comment so I can get your feedback! Lots of love! – Haylie