Avocado Chickpea Salad

Avocado Chickpea Salad with pomegranate seeds is packed with flavors. Spicy, tangy and super addictive! This is a scrumptious gluten free and vegan side dish you can eat even as a snack. 

Avocado Chickpea Salad is an outrageously nutritious salad with lots of vitamins, protein and healthy fat your body needs especially when it is getting cold outside. Chickpeas aka garbanzo beans are wonderful source of protein and fiber, which makes it a perfect food for vegetarians. Well, it’s great and your body still needs it even if you are not vegetarian. Avocado is very rich in healthy fat, so you don’t need to add any oil to the salad. Finally, pomegranate is a great antioxidant with vitamins A, C and E. The best thing about this health packed salad is that it is low in calories, so no worries when eating it.

We have chickpeas mostly as a snack and our favorite chickpea recipe is Spicy Crispy Roasted Chickpeas, but we sometimes have it in different versions as well. This tangy Avocado Chickpea Salad is one of them and we agree on eating it more often every time I make it.

I use boiled chickpeas for this salad. I always have some in the freezer as I love to use chickpeas in soups as well but you can use canned version too. There is one more step though, I don’t use them as they are for this salad. I roast the boiled chickpeas in a non-stick pan over medium high heat to have some crispiness in the salad. Make sure you pat them dry before throwing them into the pan. I sprinkle some spices in the pan and the chickpeas are very well coated with the flavors as they are roasted.

The only thing you need to do now is to combine the ingredients. Just chop a ripe avocado and squeeze lemon over it without waiting to keep it from losing its color. Toss in roasted chickpeas and pomegranate seeds. Stir until combined.

Our regular Avocado Chickpea Salad doesn’t have pomegranate seeds, but when I saw the first pomegranates of the year at bazaar, I was amazed and bought 2 pounds. Who doesn’t love this magical and precious looking fruit? You may find it hard to seed and eat it, but I never feel lazy when it comes to pomegranate. I am just in love with these beautiful looking seeds. You can toss some in any salad and it becomes even more appealing as in our favorite Citrus Caramelized Brussels Sprouts, which is a wonderful fall or winter salad. If the pomegranates you buy are tangy, then you shouldn’t miss the chance of making your own Pomegranate Molasses, which is a fantastic sticky and tangy salad dressing. If they are sweeter and you want to make a dessert with it, then see my No-Bake Chocolate Pomegranate Tart.

I can say that we kicked up the flavor of our regular Avocado Chickpea Salad with some sour pomegranate seeds and ended up with an amazing combination.

More salads with chickpeas I’d love to try:
Buckwheat Salad on Farm on Plate
Za’atar Tossed Wheat Berry Salad on Love and Garnish
Marinated Chickpeas with Quinoa and Greens on The Food Click
Chicken Caesar Salad with Chickpea Croutons on The Seaside Baker
Carrot and Chickpea Salad on In this Kitchen

Avocado and Chickpea Salad with Pomegranates

Spicy roasted chickpeas are combined with avocado, lemon juice and pomegranates.

• Author: zerrin
• Prep Time: 5 minutes
• Cook Time: 20 minutes
• Total Time: 25 minutes
• Yield: 25

Ingredients

• 1 and 1/2 cup boiled chickpeas
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon blackpepper
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder, optional
• 1 ripe avocado
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice, freshly squeezed
• 4 tablespoons pomegranate seeds

Instructions

1. Pat dry the boiled chickpeas.
2. Heat a non-stick pan over medium high heat.
3. Toss in the chickpeas.
4. Sprinkle spices over them and roast for 15-20 minutes or until you have desired crispiness.
5. Chop avocado in a bowl and squeeze about 2 tablespoons juice from a lemon right over the avocado cubes so that they don’t lose color.
6. Add chickpeas in the bowl and stir until combined.
7. Fold in pomegranates and serve.