This Tahini Chickpea Cucumber Salad is the ultimate lunchtime multitasker. If the idea of making lunch on Sunday and eating it all week long appeals to you, but you know after a day or two you’ll get tired of having the same meal day after day, you need to make this salad! Because you can:
- Eat it as-is!
- Stuff it into a pita!
- Make yourself a mini meze platter with this salad, olives, pita chips, and hummus!
- Hollow out a tomato and fill it up!
- Cook up some couscous or rice and assemble a meal bowl!
And boom, you’ve got 5 different lunch options from one simple salad.
But if you’re not convinced yet, let’s talk about the salad. It’s similar to Jerusalem salad, with mint and cucumber in a lemony tahini dressing–but instead of tomatoes, I’ve swapped in chickpeas to make it more filling.
Because cucumbers have a tendency to release water into salads, I make the tahini sauce with just enough added liquid to be able to stir the ingredients together. It will be a little bit thick when you toss it with the salad, but fear not: this keeps the dressing from getting watered down when you keep the salad in the fridge for a few days.
Photos by Lindsey Johnson
Tahini Chickpea Cucumber Salad
Whether you stuff it into a pita, use it in a meal bowl, or just eat it as-is, this simple salad is destined to become a make-ahead lunch staple.
Ingredients
- 2 15-ounce cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- 1 small cucumber seeded, quartered lengthwise and sliced
- 1/2 cup chopped fresh mint parsley leaves, or a combination of the two
- 1/4 cup tahini
- Juice from 2 lemons
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon water if needed
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
-
Toss the chickpeas, cucumber, and herbs in a large bowl. Whisk together the tahini, lemon juice, and olive oil in a small bowl. Add water if needed - you'll want the dressing to be thick, but it should still be thin enough that it can be poured and tossed with the salad.
-
Pour the dressing over the salad and gently toss until all the ingredients are well-combined. Season with salt and pepper.
