Moroccan chickpea salad is the perfect light lunch or dinner and is packed with flavor. You won’t believe how combining ordinary ingredients like chickpeas and spices can create such a unique, extraordinary spinach chickpea salad. This salad is ready in about 10 minutes and is easy to make and super filling.
Why you will love this recipe
- Ordinary ingredients – everything from the spices to the salad ingredients are easy to find in any grocery store. These ingredients come together to create a really special salad that is far from boring or ordinary.
- Easy to make – the spiced Moroccan chickpeas cook up quickly on the stove and the rest of the salad ingredients just require some simple chopping. Make the dressing in the blender for a really quick and easy salad.
- Great for parties or feeding a crowd – you can easily double or triple this recipe if you are hoping to make this Moroccan chickpea salad for a party or cookout. Wait to add the dressing until right before serving.
Ingredients
- Red onion – finely chopped red onions help add so much flavor to this dish. When cooked, they get slightly sweet and pair perfectly with all the spices. This spinach chickpeas salad could also be made with white or yellow onion, but I really love red onion in this recipe.
- Chickpeas – for ease, I use canned chickpeas in this recipe. Be sure to drain all the canning liquid then rinse the chickpeas well. If you have the time, soak the chickpeas in fresh water for a few minutes, then drain again before adding to the skillet. This helps make them easier to digest in my experience.
- Pistachios – pistachios add crunch to the salad and also pair so well with the spices and dried apricots. If you don’t have pistachios, you could also try pumpkin seeds.
- Spices: Salt, cumin, garlic powder, turmeric, cinnamon – these spices are what make this a Moroccan chickpea salad. The combination of the smoky cumin, umami from the garlic powder, the unique earthy flavor from the turmeric and sweetness from the cinnamon all work together to create that Moroccan flavor profile.
- Baby spinach – I love using baby spinach in this recipe, since it’s easy to find but you could also use arugula, baby kale or mixed greens.
- Cucumber – I recommend using a English cucumber or peeling and de-seeding a regular cucumber.
- Tomato – I recommend using a cherry tomatoes or roma tomatoes cut into bite-size pieces. You could also use roasted red peppers in place of the tomatoes.
- Dried apricots – dried apricots add sweetness to the salad and pair so well with the savory spices. Golden raisins, raisins, chopped pitted dates are also a great option.
Turmeric Dressing
- Almond butter – almond butter is the base for this dressing. This is an oil free dressing can also be made with tahini or sunbutter.
- Water – water helps to thin out the dressing. Use more or less water to make the dressing thinner or thicker.
- Lemon – lemon juice helps to make the dressing bright and perfectly balances out the almond butter in the dressing.
- Fresh grated ginger – fresh grated ginger adds a spicy bite to the dressing and also pairs well with the Moroccan chickpeas.
- Maple syrup – maple syrup helps to sweeten the dressing just slightly to help even out the flavor of the dressing.
- Spices: turmeric, salt, garlic powder – turmeric adds an earthy flavor to the dressing, salt helps to elevate the flavors and the garlic powder helps adds umami to the dressing.
How to make Moroccan chickpea salad
Preheat a large skillet over medium heat.
Finely chop the red onion. When preheated, spray the skillet with avocado oil or olive oil spray and add the onions. Cook for 3-4 minutes.
While the onions are cooking, drain and rinse the chickpeas.
Add the pistachios, drained chickpeas and spices (salt, garlic powder, cumin, turmeric, and cinnamon) to the skillet with the onions. Stir well and cook for 1-2 minutes. Turn off the heat and allow the chickpeas to cool slightly while you make the dressing and assemble the salad.
Make the salad by measuring out the ingredients and grating the ginger into a blender or bowl. Combine until smooth (in a bowl or blender).
Slice the cucumber and tomatoes.
Add the spinach to the bowl and add the sliced cucumber and tomatoes to the bowl with the spinach. Top with the Moroccan chickpea mixture and pour the dressing over top.
Top tips
- Turmeric stains, so use a silicone or stainless steel spoon to stir the chickpeas and red onion in the skillet. Using a wooden spoon will likely stain it.
- Don’t put the hot chickpea mixture on the spinach, it will wilt it. Allow the mixture to cool slightly before assembling the salad.
- If you are wanting to make this salad in advance, wait to assemble everything until right before serving. The baby spinach is quite fragile and any residual heat from the chickpeas will wilt the spinach. The dressing will also make the salad soggy if added in advance.
- Don’t have dried apricots? Use raisins or chopped pitted dates.
- Want this salad to be nut free? Use pepitas (pumpkin seeds) or sunflower seeds in place of pistachios.
- If you don’t want to use turmeric dressing, you could also serve this with a lemon vinaigrette (like the one used in my Mediterranean Black Bean Salad.
- Short on time? Skip sautéing red onions and add just the chickpeas, pistachios and spices to the skillet and cook about 1 minute just to toast the spices (so they are not too harsh in flavor).
Other additions
What to serve with chickpea spinach salad
Common questions
Can you make this salad with other beans?
This Moroccan bean salad would be great with any white beans you have on hand. I like the texture of chickpeas but it would also be great with:
- Cannellini beans
- Great Northern White Beans
- Butter Beans (Fava Beans)
- Navy Beans
Is this chickpea and spinach salad filling?
Chickpeas are very filling. One cup of chickpeas has 12 grams of protein and 12 grams of fiber, both of which will add to your satiety and help you feel full.
The salad also has a good serving of pistachios which are packed full of healthy fats but are lower in calories than other nuts. 1/4 cup of pistachios has about 6 grams of protein and 3 grams of fiber.
Make ahead tips
- Baby spinach tends to be very delicate, so I don’t recommend adding hot chickpeas or dressing to the spinach if you aren’t going to be eating it immediately.
- If you want to make this salad in advance, cook the red onion, chickpeas, pistachio mixture and set it aside to cool. Once cooled, place in a airtight container for up to 5 days in the fridge.
- Chop the rest of the ingredients and store them in a separate airtight container in the fridge (note that sliced cucumbers are best within 1-2 days of slicing and tomatoes are better chopped right before serving, as they change texture in the fridge).
- Make the dressing and store it in a container with a well-fitting lid.
- When you are ready to serve the salad, put the spinach into the bowl, top with the chickpea mixture, chopped veggies, chopped apricots and pour the dressing over top.
Storing leftovers
Fridge – this salad is best served immediately, especially if you add the warm chickpeas to the baby spinach. If you want to make this in advance, wait to add the chickpeas until they are fully cooled and wait to add the dressing until right before serving.
Substitutions
- Red onion – use yellow onion, white onion or even shallots in place of red onion.
- Chickpeas – use any white beans you have on hand for this salad. You can use cannellini beans, great northern white beans, butter beans or navy beans.
- Pistachios – you can use pepitas (pumpkin seeds), sunflower seeds, pecans, walnuts, or slivered almonds in place of the pistachios.
- Spices – if you don’t have one of the spices on hand, you can simply omit it. A good substitute for cumin would be smoked paprika. If you don’t have garlic powder you could use onion powder. If you don’t have turmeric, simply omit it. If you don’t have cinnamon replace it with half the amount of nutmeg.
- Baby spinach – you can also use arugula, baby kale, or mixed greens.
- Cucumber – if you don’t have cucumber, you can use carrots or artichoke hearts in place of the cucumber.
- Tomatoes – you can use roasted red pepper in place of tomatoes in this recipe.
- Almond butter – use tahini or sunbutter in place of the almond butter.
- Lemon juice – you can also use lime juice or apple cider vinegar in place of the lemon juice.
- Freshly grated ginger – if you don’ have ginger, you can use freeze dried ginger or ground ginger (1/2 teaspoon ground ginger).
- Maple syrup – you can use honey or 1-2 pitted medjool dates (soak the dates in hot water for 5 minutes first if possible).
If you love this recipe, you should try
★ Did you make this recipe? Please give it a star rating below!
- 1/2 medium red onion, chopped
- 1 can chickpeas – 14 oz can
- 1/4 cup pistachios, shelled
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp ground cumin
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon
- 6 oz baby spinach – 1 bag or clamshell
- 1/2 medium English cucumber
- 1/2 cup tomatoes, sliced
- 1/4 cup dried apricots, chopped
-
Preheat a large skillet over medium heat.
-
While the skillet is preheating, chop the red onion and drain and rinse the canned chickpeas.
-
When the skillet is hot (2-3 minutes preheating) spray the pan with olive oil or avocado oil spray and add the onions, cook 2-3 minutes.
-
After 2-3 minutes, add the drained chickpeas, pistachios and the spices (salt, cumin, garlic powder, turmeric and cinnamon). Stir well and cook 1-2 minutes. Turn off heat and allow to cool slightly.
-
Put the dressing ingredients into a bowl or blender. Combine well until the dressing ingredients are fully combined and the almond butter has dissolved completely, use a fork or a blender to blend.
-
Slice the cucumber and tomatoes, chop the apricots.
-
Assemble the salad: Add the baby spinach to a large bowl. Top with cucumber, tomatoes, chopped apricots and the Moroccan chickpea mixture.
-
Pour dressing over the top and serve immediately.
- Turmeric stains, so use a silicone or stainless steel spoon to stir the chickpeas and red onion in the skillet. Using a wooden spoon will likely stain it.
- Don’t put the hot chickpea mixture on the spinach, it will wilt it. Allow the mixture to cool slightly before assembling the salad.
- If you are wanting to make this salad in advance, wait to assemble everything until right before serving. The baby spinach is quite fragile and any residual heat from the chickpeas will wilt the spinach. The dressing will also make the salad soggy if added in advance.
- Don’t have dried apricots? Use raisins or chopped pitted dates.
- Want this salad to be nut free? Use pepitas (pumpkin seeds) or sunflower seeds in place of pistachios.
- If you don’t want to use turmeric dressing, you could also serve this with a lemon vinaigrette (like the one used in my Mediterranean Black Bean Salad.
- Short on time? Skip sautéing red onions and add just the chickpeas, pistachios and spices to the skillet and cook about 1 minute just to toast the spices (so they are not too harsh in flavor).
See how I calculate food cost.
Nutrition Information
Nutrition Facts
Amount per Serving
Where does nutrition info come from? Nutrition facts are provided as a courtesy, sourced from the USDA Food Database.