Chickpea eggplant salad

We feel like we haven’t shared a good Mediterranean chickpea salad in a while, so here we are. We've got the most notable chickpea eggplant salad recipe and if you love both ingredients, you need it. This eggplant salad is fresh, it’s light and it’s flavorful.

You can enjoy the healthy chickpea salad with eggplant as a satisfying Mediterranean side dish with some cooked meat or fish, but it will also make the solid lunch on its own. Some of the things you’ll need are roasted or grilled eggplant, canned chickpeas, raw veggies and feta cheese. It’s SO SO good.

Chickpea Eggplant Salad Ingredients

Roasted, grilled or sauteed eggplant. We love love love eggplant when it’s in season. Our dad grows a lot of it and it’s solid in stews, dips, roasted or in salad like this one. You can use any variety for the salad, and to make it easier, roast or saute some ahead for the week and store in the fridge. Then you can use it in salads, wraps, on top of pizza, in salads or in dips.

Canned chickpeas. We actually stopped eating canned food this year, but we were in a hurry and hungry, so we bought some canned chickpeas for this recipe. You can also use cooked chickpeas or try the salad with beans or lentils.

Fresh Raw Vegetables. This is a typical summer salad with Mediterranean flavors. So go for tomatoes, onion, pepper, cucumber, spinach (or arugula), basil and garlic.

Feta and Olives. We love both in salads, since they add creaminess and saltiness which we feel almost takes away the need to add salt to the salad.

Olive oil. And of course, we can’t make the chickpea eggplant salad without some olive oil. If you wish, add a squeeze of lemon juice as well. We didn’t, because the tomatoes added enough acidity for us.

How we “Roast” Eggplant

So this method isn’t an official thing, but it works for us, whenever we want to cook eggplant and use it in recipes.

Wash, then cut the vegetable into circles, then drizzle olive oil over a pan.

Then spread the eggplant circles over the pan (you don’t need them to be in a single layer, but try your best).

Next, add a tbsp of water, some salt and cover with a lid.

Turn the heat to medium-high and cook for 3-5 minutes, then flip. If needed add more oil or water. (we usually add a tbsp of water).

Cook at medium for about 5 more minutes or until the vegetable softens. Then remove lid and cook for 3-4 minutes to brown it a bit, at this point you might need to add some olive oil.

Transfer the cooked eggplant to a glass container and cover with another plate. After 10-20 minutes, drain the juice to remove any bitterness of the eggplant. You can now use the eggplant aka aubergine aka Solanum melongena in salads or wraps or wherever you want.

How it comes together

Once you’ve got the eggplant, you can make the chickpea salad in about 10 minutes.

To do so, wash all the produce well, then chop chop chop. Cucumbers, basil, tomatoes, peppers, onion, spinach, olives…these all don’t chop themselves. Also, mince some garlic.

Rinse and drain the chickpeas, and thinly chop the cooked eggplant as well.

Add everything to a bowl and toss, adding olive oil, salt, pepper and if desired – lemon juice as well.

Enjoy immediately or as soon as possible.

How To Store or Meal Prep

You can’t store the salad because of the tomatoes – they spoil faster than we can blink. And we're a fast blinker, like a cheetah. But you can prepare all of the other ingredients and use cherry tomatoes or add the tomatoes and the olive oil when it’s time to eat.

Other than that you can try turning these into salad jars and store in the fridge. Start with olive oil, then eggplant, chickpeas, feta, then vegetables and store in the fridge, you would again use whole cherry or grape tomatoes. Store in the fridge for 2-3 days. When it’s time to eat, dump into a large bowl and toss with salt, pepper, oil and lemon juice if desired.

How To Serve

As mentioned, we usually have this chickpea eggplant salad as a side or main dish. Last time we served it with some Greek meatballs, and a few potatoes and carrots leftover from our nephew’s lunch. It was SO satisfying. The salad actually took the spotlight and the meatballs were sad. But also good.