If you enjoy Mediterranean-inspired dishes, you’ll love this delicious and easy-to-make salad that’s loaded with healthy ingredients. This is one of the tastiest Greek chickpea and feta salads — high in both protein and fiber, and great for a post-workout meal to boost your workout recovery.
You can eat this before you exercise, or you can eat it after your workout. Whichever you choose, this salad will provide your body with the vitamins and nutrients it needs to maintain muscle. Personally, I’d eat this an hour or two before my workout because it gives your body time to break down and absorb the nutrients.
As a lunchtime option, chickpea and feta salad provides you with the vitamins and minerals you need for energy throughout the day but won’t add to your waistline.
Healthy Greek Chickpea Salad Is Full of Flavor and Good Calories
For this healthy salad, I simply mix together chickpeas, fresh spinach, feta cheese (preferably vegan), Kalamata olives, cherry tomatoes, and Persian cucumber. Add some nuts to the mix for more protein (and calories). Toasted pine nuts are a perfect choice, but almonds, walnuts, or pistachios would add an extra boost of flavor and texture, too.
You can also experiment with a combination of vegetables to create a new, tasty version that caters to your own palate and personality. If you don’t like spinach, substitute with romaine lettuce. Add some thinly sliced red onion and red or yellow peppers.
Chickpea (AKA Garbanzo Beans) Love
Eating a Greek chickpea feta salad is the perfect way to get your daily recommended servings of vegetables, but it’s the chickpeas that put it over the top. One cup of chickpeas has:
Calories: 210
Fat: 3.8g
Sodium: 322mg
Carbohydrates: 35g
Fiber: 9.6g
Sugars: 6g
Protein: 10.7g
That’s lots of protein for vegetarian weight lifters! Let’s get into the recipe!
Print Greek Chickpea and Feta Salad
- Prep Time: 15
- Total Time: 15 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
- Diet: Vegan
Description
This melange of Grecian flavors packs a solid punch of protein and carbs, plus it tastes amazing and is super easy to make. Pack it for lunch or a post-workout meal.
Ingredients
1 can Chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 Small bunch of fresh spinach
4 oz. Vegan Feta cheese, crumbled or cubed (use regular Feta if you prefer)
1/4 cup ripe cherry tomatoes cut in halfs or sundried tomatoes packed in olive oil
1/4 cup Kalamata olives, pitted, sliced or chopped
1 Small Persian cucumber, sliced into 1/4-inch wheels
1 Lemon wedge
2 T. olive oil
1/4 t. dried oregano (more to taste)
Pinch of Aleppo pepper flakes
Instructions
Combine chickpeas, spinach, olives, cucumber, tomatoes and feta in a resealable container in an artful fashion in case someone takes a picture of it. Season with the oregano and Aleppo pepper.
If you are serving immediately, drizzle with olive oil and lemon, toss together and serv.
If you are taking it to your workout or work, pack the olive oil in a small container and nestle the lemon wedge in a corner until you’re ready to eat, then squeeze the lemon and sprinkle the olive oil on top. Toss and eat!
Notes
Note: I left salt and pepper out of this recipe — add at your own risk, keeping in mind that olives and feta are quite salty!
- Category: Salad
- Method: Chop and Assemble
- Cuisine: Greek
Keywords: greek chickpea and feta salad, persian cucumber
© Photos / Health Food Radar
