Chickpea Shawarma Salad
on Jul 03, 2019, Updated Mar 13, 2025
This post may contain affiliate links.
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.
- 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. You could try this recipe with this Cauliflower Shawarma as an alternative to the chickpeas – or combine them!
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
More Recipes to Try!
Chickpea Shawarma Salad
Ingredients
For the Shawarma Chickpeas
- 3 cups cooked chickpeas, 2 15 oz cans drained and rinsed
- 2 tbsp olive oil or avocado oil
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1/2 tsp each coriander, garlic powder, cardamom, ginger, cinnamon, paprika, salt and pepper
- pinch of cayenne pepper or red pepper flakes if you want it spicy!
For the Salad
- 1 cup chopped kale per serving, plus a little olive oil for massaging
- 1/4 cup diced cucumber per serving
- 1/4 cup diced tomato per serving
- 1/4 cup finely chopped parsley per serving
- a few tbsp pickled onions per serving, see notes
- pita for serving, optional
For the Tahini Lemon Sauce
- 5 tbsp tahini, 75 g
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1 tbsp maple syrup, optional
- water to adjust consistency
Instructions
- Prepare the pickled red onion if you haven’t already.
- Massage the kale with 1/2 tsp of olive oil to soften. Set aside.
- Chop the cucumber, tomato and parsley.
- Whisk the tahini sauce ingredients together until smooth.
- Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the chickpeas, lemon and spices and heat through, about 5-10 minutes.
- While they’re cooking, divide the kale, chopped veggies and pickled onions between 4 bowls or containers. Divide the chickpeas between each bowl then top each with tahini sauce. Serve with pita and if desired, hummus.
Amazing flavour and you are correct- the pickled onions are awesome! I’ve made this a few times and it never disappoints (even the non-vegans in my house).
How far ahead can the dressing be made and stored?
The dressing can be made up to 5 days in advance. It will thicken a bit in the fridge so you can adjust with a bit of water if needed.
The recipe was delicious and easy to make. I used cucumber and tomato from my garden and added a swirl of hot sauce and chopped avocado. Yummy!
Absolutely delicious. I’m a huge lover of chickpeas and this recipe did not disappoint! Loved the dressing, loved the picked onions, and loved the spice mix!! I took your suggestion and added some roasted potato wedges that I tossed in the same spice mix as the chickpeas. So hearty and delicious. Will definitely make again. Thank you!
Made this today! Sophisticated and flavorful! Yummy…for adults in this adulthood. My young ones aren’t huge fans but it was asking a lot of them haha LOVED pickling the red onion – never done that before! Added beets to our salad but otherwise the same as yours. THANKS!
Thank you, Samantha! So glad you enjoyed it…I can imagine it was a lot of flavours for little ones to take in, haha! Aren’t the onions so yummy?? Anyways, thanks again for the review!
Questions: Do you leave the pickled red onions in the vinegar solution when saving for the week in the fridge? Or do I drain after the pickling…Thanks! PS – I think you are one of the VERY BEST vegan developers I’ve ever followed. My family loves EVERYTHING we make from you!
I leave it in the vinegar but either way works! And thank you so much..that means a lot to me!
The flavours in this recipe are bang on, it’s delicious and so satisfying! I’m new to the plant based eating world and this definitely hits the shawarma craving. I’m already looking forward to the leftovers for lunch tomorrow! Will definitely be making this again.
Awesome! So happy to hear you loved it. Thanks for the review!
This salad was amazing! Hearty and delicious! Instead of cucumbers and pickled red onions, I subbed bell pepper and pickled jalapeños because that is all I had on hand. The lemon tahini dressing is probably the best I’ve ever had (I used the maple syrup but only half the amount). And although I normally don’t care for roasted chickpeas, the flavor of these chickpeas done on the stovetop was out of this world. Can’t wait to try with cucumbers and the pickled red onions. Thanks for a great recipe!
You’re so welcome! I’m so glad to hear you enjoyed it, Yvonne. Thanks for trying the recipe and letting me know!
I made this salad today and WOW! This is my new favorite. The flavors were out of this world delicious. I added kalamata olives and cumin roasted cauliflower. This is definitely on my meal prep rotation list!
Made this for meal prep so I kept everything separate and assembled at lunch time. It was so good and very filling.
Perfect! So glad you enjoyed it.
Very delicious, I’m not necessarily a kale eater but it was perfect in this salad and I wouldn’t substitute it, the only thing I did differently was roast the chickpeas with the spices in the oven instead of on the stove. I think a lot of different people would really enjoy this! So healthy too 🙂