Curried Chickpea Quinoa Salad

You’ll need just a few simple ingredients to make this delicious vegan curried chickpea quinoa salad. Inspired by deli salads, this easy but tasty dish is sure to be a new staple!

Features

• Dietary Features: Vegan, oil-free, gluten-free and nut-free.
• Quick and easy to make with everyday ingredients in under 30 minutes.
• Addictive spiced flavour with sweet and tart bites of cranberry.
• Perfect for meal prep as it stores well in the fridge up to 5 days.
• Great on its own as a meal or side salad or served in a wrap, sandwich or bowl with other veggies and another protein source of choice.

Ingredients & Substitutions

A complete list of ingredients with amounts and full instructions is located in the printable recipe card below. This section covers ingredient and substitution considerations.

• Quinoa: Any colour works (white, red, tricolour). If you can’t do quinoa, couscous always works.
• Vegetable Broth: This is an optional ingredient and it’s totally fine to just use water instead of broth. Cooking the quinoa in half broth-half water adds a bit more flavour to it.
• Chickpeas: Canned works great but you can cook your own if you prefer.
• Cranberries: Look for unsweetened or fruit juice-sweetened dried cranberries. If you can’t find them, any dried cranberries work. Thompson raisins are a suitable substitute though I really like the tartness of cranberries in this recipe.
• Bell Pepper: Any colour works but I like green in this recipe.
• Tahini: Creamy tahini is the perfect “dressing” for this salad. You could possible swap it for plain coconut yogurt or mayo but I think tahini works best here.
• Curry Powder: Any bright and beautiful mild yelllow curry powder works. I used madras curry powder.
• Maple Syrup: Perfect addition to balance out the lemon and cranberry. It can be substituted with agave syrup if you prefer.

Step-by-Step Instructions

• Step 1: Cook the quinoa. To prepare the quinoa, bring 2 cups of water to a boil on the stovetop. Add 1 cup of rinsed quinoa, cover, reduce read and simmer for 15 minutes. Remove from the heat and let sit for 5 minutes. Remove the lid and fluff with a fork.
• Step 2: Chop up the bell pepper and scallion, grate the carrot and add them to a bowl with the chickpeas and cranberries.
• Step 4: Mix in the tahini, curry powder, lemon and maple syrup.
• Step 3: Add the cooked quinoa, mix everything up and enjoy!

Notes & Tips

• Serve as is for a light meal, starter or side salad.
• Yummy in a wrap or sandwich with crunchy lettuce and extra tahini sauce.
• Can be added to bowls with other veggies and proteins like baked tofu.
• Pairs well with veggie burgers like these spicy chickpea burgers.
• If you like some heat, add up to 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes.

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