Curried Chickpea Quinoa Salad
on May 02, 2021, Updated Aug 21, 2024
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Inspired by deli salads, this curried chickpea quinoa salad is a vibrant, satisfying dish that’s both vegan and gluten-free. It’s easy to make in under 30 minutes with simple ingredients and perfect for lunch or a light dinner.
This flavorful salad has an addictive spiced flavour with sweet and tart bites of cranberry. It’s 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.
This Curry Roasted Cauliflower Salad, Freekeh Salad, Cold Soba Noodle Salad and Broccoli Chickpea Farro Salad are similar picnic-friendly recipes you could serve at a potluck or stash in the fridge for meal prep.
Ingredients
This list is not complete. Please see the recipe card at the end of the post for the complete ingredient list with measurements and detailed instructions.
- 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!
Storing Instructions
- Flavours improve next-day so feel free to make it in advance.
- If you’re taking for a packed lunch, ok at room temperature if kept cool until lunchtime.
- Store in a sealed container in the fridge for up to 5 days.
- This recipe is not suitable for freezing.
Did you try this recipe? I’d love to hear about it! Scroll down to comment section below to leave your star rating and review.
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Curried Chickpea Quinoa Salad
Ingredients
For the Quinoa
- 1 cup rinsed quinoa
- 2 cups water or 1 cup water and 1 cup vegetable broth
For the Salad
- 15 oz. can chickpeas, drained and rinsed (1.5 cups, 255 g)
- 1/4 cup dried cranberries, 35 g
- 1 green bell pepper, seeds removed and diced
- 1 medium carrot, peeled and finely grated
- 1/2 cup thinly sliced green onion, 40 g
- 1/4 cup tahini, 60 g
- 2 tbsp lemon juice, 30 mL
- 2 tsp madras curry powder
- 2 tbsp maple syrup, 30 mL
- salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Bring the water (and broth, if using) to a boil in a medium saucepan. While you're waiting, rinse the quinoa well under cold water. Add the quinoa to the boiling water, cover and reduce the heat to medium low. Simmer lightly for 15 minutes then remove from the heat. Let it sit for 5 minutes then remove the lid and fluff with a fork.
- While the quinoa is cooking, add the rest of the ingredients to a mixing bowl or serving bowl. Mix well to combine.
- Once the quinoa is ready, add that to the bowl with the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Season with salt and pepper, if needed.
Thank you for yet another tasty, healthy recipe Deryn. I particularly liked the addition of curry powder in the tahini dressing.
I made this and I love its flexibility. I did it with even more shredded veggies (I used broccoli slaw) and it was awesome. Going to get it back out since this heat wave makes me less happy about eating warm food
I am a huge fan of Benjamin Green’s Simple Rice Cooker recipes and when I saw this recipe from you, I decided to cook all the ingredients in my rice cooker and see how it turned out. I am happy to report that it came out fantastically! What a great base recipe you created….only substitution I made was I was out of curry powder so I subbed with garam masala which was fine. Thank you and I look forward to scouring your site for more recipes like this that I can hack in the rice cooker!
We made this recipe to have for lunches this week and it has been delicious! I highly recommend it for lunch, a side dish, a potluck or day at the kale. So fresh and crisp even four days later!
Such a good combination of flavors! This has made the weekly rotation for summer meals in our house. My meat-eating husband keeps stealing the leftovers for his lunches.
Holy bowl of flavor! So easy to make and so delicious – it’s the perfect lunch!
Thanks, Donna! So glad you enjoyed it!
Divine! Just made this – added diced celery. Easy and YUMMY. Ate it on spinach. Kiddos ate it in pitas.
I really like this recipe. As I went back to review it on your website, I realized the recipe doesn’t have carrot in it. You might want to fix that. Thanks!
Sorry about that. I fixed it. Glad you enjoyed!