Chickpea Shawarma Salad

This vegan chickpea shawarma salad is jam-packed with flavour and nutrition. Enjoy this as a hearty plant-based meal the whole family will love. This recipe is gluten-free, sugar-free and easily customizable.

What is Shawarma?

Shawarma is a Middle Eastern preparation of meat such as lamb, chickpea, beef or mutton, cut in thin slices and stacked on a vertical rotisserie. I’m sure you’ve seen them it in action before. Shawarma is usually served with toppings like tabouleh, tahini, pita, pickles and hummus.

We’re plant-based around here so instead of using animals for this shawarma dish, we’ll be using chickpeas!

Salad Ingredients

Here’s what I used in these chickpea bowls. I’ve included a list of subs and swaps below in case you want to switch things up.

1. Shawarma chickpeas. To make the chickpeas, you’ll need 3 cups of cooked chickpeas, or two 15 oz cans drained and rinsed and a variety of Middle Eastern spices to create the shawarma flavour.
2. Veggies. The base of the salad is massaged kale and chopped cucumbers, tomato, parsley add more flavour and bulk. You can play around with more additions like olives, roasted potato, diced or roasted red pepper or avocado.
3. Pickled red onions. One of my favourite toppings at donair shops is the pickled turnips. For this recipe, instead of turnips, we’re going with pickled red onion. These add the same tangy flavour and are easy to make in under 30 minutes. See below for how to make them.
4. Pita. Serving these bowls with pita is optional but who doesn’t love a good slab of pita to load up with chickpeas, veggies and tahini sauce.
5. Tahini lemon dressing. The salad is finished off with a simple lemon tahini dressing made from tahini, lemon, garlic powder, maple syrup and water. You can also do a hummus dressing by mixing hummus with a bit of water and lemon.

Recipe Swaps and Additions

Here are some ideas for making this your own:

• add roasted potatoes or potato wedges
• add roasted cauliflower
• make a hummus dressing instead of tahini lemon sauce
• adding quinoa tabouleh or hemp seed tabouleh
• try additional toppings like avocado, roasted red peppers, pickled turnips, roasted beets or potato, kalmata olives, black olives or hemp seeds
• for some crunch, use baked pita chips instead of soft pita
• add a scoop of brown rice, quinoa, barley or farro for a heartier dish

How to Make Pickled Red Onions

Pickled red onions are easy to make in about 30 minutes. Well, like 2 minutes of prep time and 30 minutes of wait time, so it’s really easy! All you need to make them is sugar, salt and vinegar. Here’s how:

1. Slice a red onion into rings and place in a bowl. Pour boiling water over them so they’re all covered and let them soak for 10 minutes. Drain.
2. Add the drained red onions to a jar or container, cover with vinegar and add 2 tsp sugar, 1/2 tsp of salt and if desired, a couple cloves of garlic.
3. Let them sit for 30 minutes up to overnight and enjoy! They can be kept in the fridge for up to 2 weeks in a sealed container.

Pickled onions are great on salads and bowls, in wraps and sandwiches, as a side to tofu scramble or on top of avocado toast. I love including a batch with my weekly meal prep so I always have some ready to go.

This recipe is sure to be a new favourite! The shawarma chickpeas are flavourful and addictive and you will love them paired with tangy, pickled red onion, kale, tomato, cucumber, parsley and lemon tahini sauce.

This bowl is quite easy to make and easily customizable so there’s no need to follow the recipe exactly. You can adjust it based on your preference and nutritional needs by swapping out the veggies, adding quinoa tabouleh or hemp seed tabouleh or a big dollop of hummus.

More Healthy Salads

Loving this shawarma bowl? Check these out too:

• Brown Rice and Tempeh Bowl
• Mediterranean Farro Salad
• Quinoa Tabouleh Bowls
• Thai Chopped Salad with Tofu

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