Chopped Broccoli and Chickpea Salad
33 Comments
Updated Aug 11, 2023
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This chopped broccoli and chickpea salad is one of my favorite durable salads to meal prep. It’s light and fresh thanks to crisp, crunchy veggies, packed with plant-based protein to satisfy your hunger, and tossed in the best lemon tahini dressing.
You’ll always find leafy green salads in my weekly rotation, but salads minus leafy greens are also amazing – because they’re extra durable! That’s important on weeks when I’m meal prepping (and pro tip – you’ll find a whole chapter of durable salads in my Healthy Meal Prep Cookbook). So that’s exactly what this chopped broccoli and chickpea salad is all about.
It’s simple, with just a handful of ingredients, but will consistently surprise and delight you with how delicious it is. Think of it as a blend between my broccoli salad and Mediterranean chickpea salad — but with a fresh twist. And since it’s durable enough to last for several days in the fridge, I’d consider this the perfect grab n’ go lunch or whenever you craving an extra dose of veggies!
Chopped Broccoli and Chickpea Salad Recipe Ingredients
The key here is to chop all the veggies into similarly sized small pieces. This will make it easier to pick up all the yummy ingredients in one large spoonful! Here is what you’ll need.
- Protein: The chickpeas in this salad provide such a great source of vegetarian protein.
- Veggies: This is all about the deliciously crunchy combination of chopped broccoli, yellow bell pepper, celery, and red onion. But feel free to swap any of these veggies with another you may like better if they have a similar texture.
- Nuts: I love to use slivered almonds for added crunch. But any chopped nuts will work here!
- Cheese: Fresh goat cheese adds a level of creaminess to this salad. If you’re not a fan of goat cheese, you can use crumbled feta instead.
- Lemon Tahini Dressing: This nutty yet sweet dressing only needs tahini, water, maple syrup, lemon juice, salt, and pepper! If you want it a bit thicker, use less water.
Helpful tip: Make this salad dairy-free by omitting the goat cheese or using dairy-free cheese!
How to Make Broccoli and Chickpea Salad
Add salad ingredients to a large bowl. This includes the broccoli, chickpeas, bell pepper, celery, red onion, slivered almonds, and goat cheese.
Make the dressing. Stir together the tahini, water, maple syrup, lemon juice, salt, and pepper in a small bowl.
Stir everything together! Pour the lemon tahini dressing on the salad and stir together, until well combined.
Storage Tips
This broccoli and chickpea salad will keep for 4 to 5 days in the fridge in an airtight container. And if you’re making this for a dinner party or summer barbecue, you can prep it the day before (with or without the dressing).
More Durable Salad Recipes
Durable salads should have a special place in your meal prep rotation, so here are a few recipes that I love to keep on hand. And if you just want more salad ideas in general, I’ve got a full list of easy and healthy salad recipes.
- Fresh Corn Salad
- Chicken Salad (a reader favorite!)
- Greek Salad
- Classic Egg Salad
I hope you love this chopped broccoli and chickpea salad as much as I do. If you make it, let me know how it turned out in the comment box below. I’d love to hear your thoughts!
Chopped Broccoli and Chickpea Salad
Description
Ingredients
Broccoli Salad
- 1 medium head broccoli, chopped into small pieces (about 4 cups chopped)
- 1 (15-ounce) can chickpeas, rinsed
- 1 yellow bell pepper, chopped
- 2 ribs celery, chopped
- ⅓ cup chopped red onion
- ¼ cup slivered almonds
- 3 ounces crumbled goat cheese
Lemon Tahini Dressing
- ¼ cup tahini
- 3 tablespoons water
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup or honey
- 1 lemon, juiced (about 3 tablespoons juice)
- kosher salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Add the broccoli, chickpeas, bell pepper, celery, red onion, slivered almonds, and goat cheese to a large mixing bowl.
- In a separate small mixing bowl, stir together the tahini, water, maple syrup, lemon juice, salt, and pepper
- Pour the lemon tahini dressing on the salad and stir together, until well combined.
Nutrition
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This salad is fantastic! I had everything chopped up, whisked up the dressing and tasted it before I poured it in and I was not convinced I was going to like it. I thought it was too mild, but I was wrong. It pairs so perfectly with the salad! Which is why you make the recipes and I don’t, lol. I did not add almonds or goat cheese because I didn’t have them. I added about 3/4tsp salt to the dressing and used a red bell pepper instead of yellow. I will definitely make this again!
Thrilled to hear you loved this broccoli and chickpea salad, Megan!
This salad is absolutely delicious. I love all the healthy ingredients and they go together so well. The only change I made was ricotta instead of goat cheese because I had it in the house. It’s so good I’m including it with dinner again tonight!
Sounds like a perfect swap. I’m glad you love it!
Delicious, but I’m having trouble portioning this. Approximately how many cups is in one portion?
It will depend on how big your broccoli is. But, I’d say between 1 to 1.5 cups is one serving.
Amazing salad! Super crunchy and amazing flavour! I will plan to have this on my salad rotation! Great to pack for lunches as well! The flavour just gets better as it sits. Also added garlic after reading the other reviews and love the idea to add cranberries, especially going into the fall. Definite make again for our family!
This is definitely a great meal prep-friendly salad :)
I made this and as always the sauces are tops! I even added black olives and it was a delicious, and nutritive addition.
Sounds great with the addition of olives! Glad you enjoyed it, Michelle.
Wowza on taste and texture!!! I made this for a lunch with friends and it was SUCH a big hit! What a wonderful recipe! Thank you so much!
Happy to hear you and your friends loved this chickpea salad, Deb!
Made this for 4th of July and people really liked it! I swapped the goat cheese with feta cheese, left the celery out completely and replaced the almond slivers with sliced almonds.
I do think though the salad was at its best 1-2h after mixing it with the dressing, later it’s lost a lot of flavor so I recommend eating it fast.
Glad this was a hit for July 4th!
Made this tonight and omg soooo yum! Only addition I made was garlic to the dressing as I’m a huge garlic lover 😚!
Glad you loved this chickpea salad, Danica!
Yum!! A great, fresh summer salad to have on hand! I left out the chickpeas and goat cheese and substituted sweet peppers for the bell pepper.
My stomach doesn’t love beans, and i didn’t have any goat cheese on hand. But, I’m sure the goat cheese would’ve made the salad even more delicious.
Glad this salad turned out great with the few substitutions you had Amanda!
This salad is so delicious. I recently found you while looking for a gluten free tortilla recipe. Since then I’ve made about 4 different recipes and all have been 5+.
Happy to hear you’re loving this salad and many other recipes as well, Aminta!
wondering if you could swap out broc for spinach? I love both but have spinach on hand and thinking of trying it this way
That’s fine!
I really enjoyed this salad – as did my husband!! Refreshing and delicious. Easy to prepare, and gone in under 3 days!
Happy to hear both you and your husband enjoyed this salad, Paula!
This was so good! One thing I tweaked was to blanch the broccoli just a smidgen sorta to tone it down so that the other crunchy veggies could be detected well. Loved the dressing too (and I actually went to the trouble of making some tahini from scratch using your recipe, Lisa). Two thumbs up! Will be making it again. 😊
Great idea on softening the broccoli a smidge, Rennie!
Made this today and it was fabulous! I used your tahini recipe (which is a staple in my fridge, along with a few other things!). A tasty, filling salad (we love garbanzo beans/chick peas). I omitted the celery since my husband isn’t a real fan, but that was my only alteration from your recipe. I’ll make this again!
Homemade tahini is the way to go! Glad you and your husband enjoyed this salad.
Yum! I’ll make this wknd! What could I swap for the tahini? Thx!!
You can use any nut butter such as almond or cashew butter!
Great texture and flavors!
This is so good! I added dried cranberries too – so quick and easy , I finally gave in and bought Tahini a while ago and it makes such a difference in recipes vs my previous peanut butter :)
Happy to hear you loved this salad and finally got around to using tahini!