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This Ranch Chickpea Salad is my new go-to EASY lunch recipe! It’s fully plant-based and packed with so much goodness. This salad is easily customizable and perfect for meal prep.
I have to admit: I’m not really much of a salad eater (unless pasta salad counts!?). I WANT to love salads but they too often leave me hungry and unsatisfied. AND I almost always want WARM food.
BUT this Ranch Chickpea Salad? I like this salad a LOT :)
It’s filling and simple and the roasted chickpeas add such a nice touch of crunch and warmth to the recipe. I’m a FAN.
And before you ask, NO traditional ranch is NOT dairy-free so that’s why we’re using my homemade Vegan Ranch for this recipe. It’s SUPER simple to make and so much better than most store-bought dairy free ranch dressings that I have tried.
I used to make the ranch with dairy-free yogurt but lately I’ve been making it with vegan sour cream and LOVE this version the most. I’ve always used tofutti sour cream but a friend recently turned me on to the vegan sour cream from kroger and I’m a HUGE fan.
The thing I really like about homemaking ranch is that you can get it any thickness that you like. If I’m putting it on a salad, I want it quite runny whereas if I’m dipping veggies in the ranch, I like it to be much thicker.
For the roasted chickpeas, I’m mostly following THESE instructions for perfect roasted chickpeas. You can add really any flavor of chickpeas to this salad but I wanted something that would add a little heat. Feel free to leave out the cayenne though if that is not your thing.
If you want to make this recipe SUPER easy, you can always buy pre-roasted chickpeas to top on the salad. I find that they can be quite pricey compared to making your own so that’s what I usually do.
Alright! That’s it for today. Keeping things SHORT and sweet (well, rather savory I guess :)).
As usual, PLEASE let me know if you make this recipe and how you like it! You can come back here and leave a comment and/or tag me on instagram (@foodwithfeeling).
More Chickpea recipes to try!:
Ranch Chickpea Salad
Ingredients
For the spicy roasted chickpeas:
- 1 15 oz can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- ½ tablespoon of olive oil
- 1 teaspoon of cumin
- 1 teaspoon of chili powder
- ½ teaspoon of cayenne
- ½ teaspoon of salt
- Black pepper to taste
For the salad:
- Lettuce of choice, about 4 large handfuls (enough to make 2 large salads)
- ½ cup of cherry tomatoes, quartered
- ⅔ cup of shredded carrots
- ⅓ cup of red onion, finely diced
- ⅓ cup of cilantro, finely chopped
- ½ of a medium avocado
- ⅓-½ cup of vegan ranch dressing
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees F.
- Dry off the chickpeas well so that very little moisture remains. Remove any loose chickpea skins. It’s not necessary to pick off every single skin but I like to remove the loose ones. Place the chickpeas on the baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil, cumin, chili powder, cayenne, salt and pepper, and toss to coat.
- Roast the chickpeas for 15 minutes, toss and bake an additional 10-15 minutes. Let cool while you prepare the salad.
- Make the salad by tossing together the lettuce, cherry tomatoes, carrots, red onion, cilantro, and avocado in a large bowl. Divide into 2 portions and top with the chickpeas (dividing in half evenly) and the ranch dressing.
- Serve and ENJOY!
I’m not much of a salad person, but really love this one — so yummy, easy to pull together and satisfying. The chickpeas are tasty on their own, as a snack. I’ll be adding this into the regular rotation for sure. Thank you!