Creamy Chickpea Avocado Salad
You guys are probably like: “Seriously, another Salad recipe Cearaaaaaaa?” But honestly y’all this Creamy Chickpea Avocado Salad is where it is AT. From the light and creamy avocado dressing to the fresh chickpeas to the crunchy and crispy Summer veggies! And I could LIVE off of light, make-ahead and tangy salads ALL Summer long. Is anybody else with me?!
Especially because since we’ve arrived in Italy it has been H O T. Like 40C/105F sweltering, Tuscan sun, eat-all–the–Gelato kinda hot. We rented an apartment on a farm here so have been spoiled enough to be able to cook for ourselves most evenings. Meaning we have been LIVING off the fresh veggies here, making new fun salads every night at our little Italian home for the week here!
This Creamy Chickpea Avocado Salad is protein-packed, includes all my favorite Summer veggies AND sports a delicious and creamy lemon-avocado dressing similar to the salad dressing in my Creamy Vegan Broccoli Salad. Avocado is one of my favorite ingredients to blend into dressings because you can skip out on all the oil found in traditional salad dressings without skipping out on ANY of the flavor or texture, YUM!
This Creamy Chickpea Avocado Salad is a fun make-ahead salad that you could easily take for your lunch, use as a BBQ side or even munch on as a mid-afternoon snack during the 4pm afternoon-I-need-some-food-and-energy-slump! If you do end up trying this healthy and vegan Creamy Chickpea Avocado Salad, it makes my week reading your comments and seeing your lovely shots on my Facebook page and Instagram. Leave a comment below with your feedback, share your photo on my Facebook page or tag me in your awesome shots on Instagram with #CearasKitchen so I don’t miss ’em! Have a wonderful week everyone 🙂
Creamy Chickpea Avocado Salad
- Total Time: 20 mins
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
Description
This Creamy Chickpea Avocado Salad makes the perfect complete protein and veggie packed lunch or side! It is one of my favorite Summer salads, incorporating many of my favorite flavors and vegetables of Summer from avocado to lemon to fresh tomatoes!
Ingredients
- 3 cups chickpeas (cooked or canned)
- 1 cup red onion, chopped
- 1 cup celery, chopped
- 2 cups cucumber, chopped
- 1/2 cup radishes, chopped
- 1 cup tomatoes, chopped
- 3 tbsp sunflower seeds
- 1/2 cup unsulfured raisins
Creamy Avocado Dressing
- 1 avocado
- 1/2 lemon, juiced (2 heaping tbsp lemon juice)
- 1/2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 2 tbsp coconut sugar
- 1/4 cup lightly packed basil
- 1 clove garlic
- 2 tbsp pine nuts/sunflower seeds
- 1/3 – 1/2 cup water OR unsweetened soy milk*
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (optional), 1/4 tsp oregano
- dash black pepper
Garnish
- Fresh parley
- Sunflower Seeds
- 1/2 lemon, juiced
Instructions
- Rinse your chickpeas if you are using canned. Chop and prepare all your vegetables (see photo for size). Toss the chickpeas and all the vegetables (red onion through to tomatoes), sunflower seeds and raisins into a large bowl.
- Make the Creamy Avocado Dressing. Blend all the ingredients together until perfectly creamy. I used an immersion stick blender – a high speed blender will also work. Add an additional tbsp or 2 of water until desired consistency is reached.
- Mix the dressing in with the chickpeas and vegetables. Garnish with sunflower seeds, fresh parsley and more lemon juice if desired. I like this salad with extra lemon juice, freshly juiced on top! Enjoy!
Notes
1) Use sunflower seeds in dressing for a nut free option.
2) Use unsweetened soy milk in dressing for an evening creamier dressing.
- Prep Time: 20 mins
- Category: Side
- Cuisine: American
Tried the Creamy Chickpea Avocado recipe…I agree with another comment that the page takes forever to load. And when I clicked on the “make it” button it would kick me out multiple times. I was using my ipad. I finally got onto a laptop and found the print button under the photo and printed recipe. I printed it after I made it and printed it especially for the dressing! Wow…amazing dressing!! I would post that as its own recipe. LOVE IT. Its a staple for me know for my clean eating program.
As far as the salad…I thought it was okay. It took me more than the 20-minutes prep time to make the whole salad. Too much red onion for my taste. But I do love avacodo and chickpeas so I probably will make it again sometime.
It wont let me Rate this recipe…but I give it a 4/5 stars 🙂
Your page take FOREVER to load and I’m using Chrome. It also doesn’t work in IE.
This looks soooo delicious and I want to go to the store right now and buy all the ingredients! I bet it will keep me satisfied throughout the day. I am trying to cut back on my calorie intake, have lost some weight. Yippee. Just wondering if you might have a calorie count per serving for this delicious dish.
Hi Andrea! Thank you so much – would love to know how the salad turns out 🙂
I am not sure of the exact nutritional info off hand but you can enter the ingredients into this site to get it. http://www.caloriecount.com/cc/recipe_analysis.php
Made this for lunch today and it was so good!! Thank you for a great recipe! 🙂
Thank you for the positive feedback, Kelly! So happy you enjoyed it 🙂
Oh yum! Love the dressing! I’m a huge fan of avocado based ones but I’ve never tried adding coconut sugar or pine nuts!
★★★★★
The coconut sugar and pine nuts really make this dressing top notch!! Thank you so much, Lucie!! 🙂
LOVE this! add avocado to anything and I’ll be in love! 😉 healthy and de-lish perfect!
Thanks so much, Michele! 🙂 Yay for avocado!
Girl this looks incredible Ceara! Looks sooo filling, so rich and creamy! I wish I had a big bowl of it right now! That dressing sounds divine. I love making sauces and dressings out of avocados, it’s been a while though, so thank you for inspiring me to do it again! I bet I could drink that stuff, haha! I am so jealous…I can’t imagine spending a week in Tuscany..seriously?! You have got to post some pictures, I’m dying to see what it looks like there from your perspective.
<3 Thanks so much, Brandi!!!! Posting pictures soon!! Preparing a Vegan in Italy post as well with some food pics!! :D
This looks beautiful. I love using avocado to add creaminess to a dish.
It’s the best <3 Thank you, Dannii!!
Thank you so much for this recipe. I made it tonight and it was so tasty. The dressing is yumscious!!! I added a few chopped chillies, but apart from that, followed the recipe. There’s even some left for lunch tomorrow!
So happy you enjoyed the recipe, Gaynor!!! 🙂 Love the addition of chilies as well! Delicious! Thank you for the wonderful feedback 🙂
I know what I am going to make for supper tonight! Looks delish!
Yay!! Let me know how it turns out 🙂
Ceara, this looks SOOOO good! That creamy dressing is making my mouth water! Gorgeous photos too!