Avocado Chickpea Salad – Level up your lunch!
- Updated on Aug 04, 2021
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This Avocado Chickpea Salad is the perfect weekday lunch that will keep you going through a long day at work. High in protein, fiber and put together in 5 minutes before you leave. Easy as pie (and much healthier!).
Health benefits of an avocado chickpea salad
A chickpea salad would be healthy enough, but a chickpea salad with avocado!? That’s elite level health, right there. From just the one serving you get a great amount of protein and fiber, around 20g of each!
Why do we want protein and fibre? The fiber will make you feel full and the protein will both help you feel full and contribute to muscle maintenance – perfect.
Where is all this goodness coming from in our avocado chickpea salad? Let’s start with the avos:
Why use avocado in salad recipes?
Putting avocados in salads just packs a whole extra punch of nutritional benefits.
Avocados are high in healthy monounsaturated fats quite similar to olive oil. Those are healthy fats, fundamental to the healthy functioning of the body and can help improve your cholesterol levels and your blood pressure.
Unsaturated fat is also super important when it comes to absorbing vitamins A, D, E and K. These vitamins need fat in order to be absorbed into the body!
Furthermore, the high fat content means the energy from the avocados will release slowly, keeping you fuller for longer.
If you want to know more about avocados, and particularly whether or not such a fatty food can help with weight loss, we’ve tackled that question in an article, ‘Are avocados good for weight loss?’ . (ps. If you’re trying to lose weight, check out our vegetarian weight loss e-book – we’ve sold 6,000 copies so far, so we must be doing something right!)
This is why the avocado in our avocado chickpea salad is so important – not to mention creamy and delicious!
If you’re loving the sound of avocados why not try our avocado salad dressing, so you can jazz up all your salads with some green goodness.
Subscribe to get our FREE 7-Day Vegetarian High Protein Meal Plan for Weight Loss
What’s so great about a chickpea salad recipe?
Wondering where all the protein in our avocado chickpea salad comes from? A lot of it is thanks to the chickpeas!
One can of chickpeas contains 18g protein and 16g fibre, making them an excellent plant-based protein source. Much like avocados, their high protein and fibre content mean chickpeas will keep you full for a long time.
Chickpeas are crazy versatile too. You can use chickpea flour to make pancakes and even gluten free pizzas – wild!
What a combo!
Can you see why we hype up this avocado chickpea salad? It’s one hell of a salad!
And health benefits aside: between the creamy avo, nutty chickpeas, the sweet and sour mix of lime and honey and the bites of rich salty feta … you’ve got yourself a salad that isn’t just healthy, but delicious too!
What our readers are saying
I just made this for the 3rd time in less than 2 weeks and had to make copies of the recipe at work to hand out because I got so many “likes” 😉 . LOVE this recipe! I added some halved cherry tomatoes for color too.
Kathleen Day⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Wow! I may or may not have inhaled this. So delicious, filling, and fast. Ingredient amount are perfect. I have two kids under two years old, so I’m always on the hunt for easy meals for lunch.
Rebecca⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
What a delight! With what I had onhand, subbed lemon for the lime, basil for cilantro, and shallot for the red onion. SO simple (made it while wearing a sleeping baby) and it turned out fantastic! Thank you for sharing this. Can’t wait to check out your blog for more great ideas!
Lucy
Ingredients
- 1 can chickpeas (drained and rinsed; 1 can = 15oz = 435g)
- 1 avocado
- 1 handful cilantro/coriander, fresh
- ½ red onion
- 2 oz low fat feta cheese (or similar)
- 1 lime (juiced)
- 1 tsp honey
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Drain and rinse the chickpeas.1 can chickpeas
- Cut and dice up the avocado. Chop the cilantro/coriander (also the stems, if you like). Dice up half an onion.1 avocado, 1 handful cilantro/coriander, fresh, ½ red onion
- Throw everything into a bowl, add the feta cheese, honey and lime juice. Season with salt and pepper.2 oz low fat feta cheese, 1 lime, 1 tsp honey, Salt and pepper to taste
- Lunch is ready!
NOTES
Nutrition
Some more lunch ideas
- Chickpea Spinach Salad (7 Min, Vegetarian)
- High Protein White Bean Salad (10 Min, Vegan)
- Arugula Lentil Salad (12 Min, Vegan)
- Round Up: 18 Veggie High Protein Salads (between 5 and 25 minutes)
Hauke Fox
I’m always on the lookout for these damn smart recipes. You know, those that only take a few minutes to put together and taste delicious. Vegetarian Cooking at home is a way to take back control over what I eat. I don’t like what many companies do to animals and the environment with their products.
Article has been medically reviewed by James LeBaigue MSc
James LeBaigue MSc
James has a Masters Degree in Sport and Exercise Nutrition, as well as an Advanced Diploma in Human Nutrition.
He loves combining his scientific knowledge along with food in the real world, and these recipes are the result.
He’s on top of all the latest evidence and guidelines to make sure our nutrition advice on the website is as accurate as it can be.
By day he works as an Advanced Clinical Practitioner in a busy NHS GP Practice.
Each recipe is tested and then eaten (much to James’ delight), many times before it is deemed worthy to be published. Bon appetit!
Comments
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46 comments
That question – are you coming to lunch – that right there is the biggest moment of weakness. And I have succumbed to it many a time even when I had a nice packed lunch with me.
This recipe is so simple – I just love it!
Hahaha, I know exactly what you mean! It’s sometimes a little tricky to say “no, I brought my own lunch.”
Thanks for reading!
Haha – I so agree – we are at work almost 8 hours – I definitely have no desire to socialize during lunch to – I would much rather have some quality time with this avocado and chickpea beauty of a salad! 🙂
hahahaha! I actually got a few working mates to also bring food from home. So we are united again, at least a couple of times per week! But it’s funny to see how many factors influence your diet. Thanks for reading!
Smash this up a bit more and it makes an AWESOME sandwich filling. Saw it on a blog touted as a replacement for tuna salad, but it’s way better!
Wow, that’s an excellent idea!!! I could put it in my pitas 🙂 Thanks for sharing!
A beautiful combination of ingredients! I should eat more lentils,
this salad would be a great way to add them to my diet.
Thanks!
You mean chickpeas I guess 😉
Haha – I accidentally left my feta and cilantro at home so I made the salad without – aaaand, it’s still delicious! This is a keeper, thank you.
Probably due to the fact that you really like avocados and chickpeas then 😉
Glad you liked the recipe!!
It’s so hard cooking for my vegetarian daughter! This was perfect!!! Thank you so much!!
WOAH!! Great your daughter liked the recipe 😀
Super awesome to hear!!
Just looked it up and made it in 5 minutes!! Perfect and easy! Thank you!
Woahh, that’s awesome!! 😀
What a delight! With what I had onhand, subbed lemon for the lime, basil for cilantro, and shallot for the red onion. SO simple (made it while wearing a sleeping baby) and it turned out fantastic! Thank you for sharing this. Can’t wait to check out your blog for more great ideas!
Thanks so much for the feedback, Lucy!!! Great to hear you liked the salad + that it was easy for you to prepare 😀
Wow! This was so easy to make and just like the other recipes just as tasty and healthy!
Normalerweise habe ich nicht so viele Zeit zum kochen aber dieses website ist ein richtige
lifesaver 🙂
VG aus FFM!
hi Sunny!
Danke für das tolle Feedback! Genau deswegen haben wir die Seite gestartet 🙂
Ich freue mich, dass du schon ein Rezept gefunden hast, dass dir gefällt!
Beste Grüße aus Berlin!
I just made this for the 3rd time in less than 2 weeks and had to make copies of the recipe at work to hand out because I got so many “likes” 😉 . LOVE this recipe! I added some halved cherry tomatoes for color too.
How awesome is that, Kathleen?? Thanks so much for sharing this with us!
Glad your colleagues liked the salad too!! 😀
This is a super easy and delicious salad! I not only use it as a lunch option for me…but as an added side for parties and even dinner. My growing boys just LOVE it anyway anytime!
Woah, that’s really cool to hear, Anna! Glad the salad received so much positive feedback 😀
Made this tonight, minus the cilantro, and it was amazing! Did a mix of lemon juice and lime juice with a little garlic powder! So good!!
That does indeed sound really good!! Garlic powder is soo good, but people notice immediately as well 😀
Thanks for the comment, Kelly!
Thank you for this recipe! We adapted it for my daughter using vegan cheese & she absolutely loves it. 5 mins to prepare & we have a fresh, healthy meal to suit her eating choices.
Awesome!! It’s great to read a comment like this, to know that someone is getting support in a nutritious and easy way. Thanks for writing, Fiona!
Could you substitute the feta cheese with any other cheese or dressing? I hate feta cheese. I can eat other cheeses but I do try to stay as vegan as possible if you can suggest anything else to replace it.
Hi Camilla,
Hmm, that’s a tough one. To be honest I didn’t come across a great vegan feta replacement yet. As far as other cheeses go – it should be fresh/moist and lightly salty. You definitely want those components for mouth feel. Maybe you can find a similar cheese made from goat or cow milk? In Germany there’s an alternative called “Shepherd’s cheese”. It’s like feta but just with cows milk. Good luck with your investigation! 🙂
Wow! I may or may not have inhaled this. So delicious, filling, and fast. Ingredient amount are perfect. I have two kids under two years old, so I’m always on the hunt for easy meals for lunch.
Hahaha great! I know, it’s one of the very fastest recipes we have on the site. It still surprises me when I make it again after a break, it’s like ‘wow lunch is ready already?’ 😀
I’m a newbie vegetarian so I’m learning as I go. Any way to add red lentils to this? Parsnips? (I bought 2 and am obsessed with doing something with them, just don’t have a clue!)
Hi there Sue! Cool that you joined the veggie tribe 😀
Hope you’ll find lot’s of tasty new recipes. Well, I’d exchange the chickpeas for the red lentils so it’s not overloaded with legumes. Parsnips could go in there as well. They need a bit of extra prepping though (See this post on wikihow). So, either have them on the side or throw them in once fried, boiled, roasted or baked 🙂
Enjoy experimenting!
Are the nutrition facts for all two servings or just one?
Hi Samantha, the nutrition facts are for one serving 🙂
Will try this. And maybe go vegetarian within the year. Love avocado:)
Enjoy missb! Gotta love the avos 😀
Starting my journey on becoming vegetarian and im beyond excited. Trying your meal plan and its extremely convenient and looks delicious. However, im a little nervous due to the high amount of fat in the meals. Im really new at this. Should I just decrease the amount of ingredients with high fat content?
Hi Bella – not all fat is bad! And some fats are very important indeed. The meals plans are pretty well-balanced and I wouldn’t necessarily cut down on certain ingredients (for example avocado is high fat, but brings with it lots of other goodness). I’d only really be wary if you’re getting high fat content from other external areas too – if you’re following these meal plans you should be in a good place 🙂
I have printed out a bunch of your recipes this morning. This one is like, duh! I love all of the ingredients, why haven’t I done this before? I bought three beautiful eggplants yesterday and found your Aubergine Curry recipe, which is perfect. It led me down the rabbit hole of fantastic recipes, landing me here. Thank you so much! I will keep an eye out for your recipes!
Thanks Nan! I’m happy you’ve found us too :). Appreciate your kind words. Enjoy the recipes!
This is delicious! I made it for lunch tomorrow but I might just eat it now. I replaced the onion with red bell pepper bc I don’t like raw onion. Thanks for a yummy recipe!
Thanks for the feedback! Bell pepper is a good replacement indeed! I’m sure it tastes nicely as well!! 🙂
Oh my word! I was going to make this to take to work for lunch but woke feeling naff after very little sleep and couldn’t get my act together so I had it for breakfast (oh yes I did!). Five minutes later I was superwoman!
I shall be breakfasting on this again – in fact I may eat it all day, just because it’s SOOOOOOOOO delicious
Yay, glad you enjoyed it so much! It’s a surprising one, isn’t it? And soooooo quick. I often make it if I realise I’ve forgotten to plan lunch and need something within 5 mins
Just realised i forgot the onion. Ah well, there’s always tomorrow 😀
Haha indeed! Another reason to make it again 😀