Food

This 15-Minute Salad is Half Falafel, Half Hummus, and 100% Scrumptious

May 23, 2025
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Why It Works

  • Utilizing the meals processor emulsifies the sauce and chops the chickpeas and greens right into a cohesive, scoopable salad.
  • Falafel-inspired flavors—tahini, lemon, garlic, cumin, coriander, and recent herbs—give the salad depth and freshness.
  • The salad is flexible: Serve it on crusty bread, in a pita, or as a topping for greens.

I am a giant fan of creamy, deli-style salads. Give me a basic tuna or egg salad on tender sandwich bread with buttery lettuce, and I am a cheerful gal. However for an inexpensive, plant-based possibility, chickpeas may be remodeled into simply as satisfying and creamy a salad. Plus, I nearly all the time have canned ones readily available in my pantry, able to get lunch on the desk quick.

Critical Eats / Maureen Celestine


It is simple sufficient to pop open a can of chickpeas, mash them up a bit, stir in some mayo and seasonings, and name it a day—and belief me, I would not complain in the event that they have been served to me like that for lunch. However with just a little further effort, you may flip a scrumptious chickpea salad right into a spectacular chickpea-salad sandwich. To try this, I draw inspiration from the flavors of falafel and hummus and toppings typically served with it.—specifically, garlicky tahini sauce, earthy cumin, vivid coriander, and recent lemon. The trouble is minimal, it includes no deep frying, however nonetheless scratches that falafel itch.

Just a little little bit of mayo helps add a velvety-smooth texture to the tahini and offers it just a little further tang, whereas nonetheless letting the tahini’s nuttiness shine via. Some chopped cucumbers and a beneficiant handful of recent herbs, in the meantime, add freshness, crunch, and coloration.

Critical Eats / Maureen Celestine


Nailing the Good Texture and Consistency

When you would possibly balk on the thought of pulling out an equipment to make a fast lunch, it is a useful software right here, guaranteeing all of the elements come collectively very quickly to kind a salad that’s cohesive however nonetheless textured and pleasantly chunky. The processor does double-duty, first guaranteeing the oil-rich tahini-based sauce is creamy and absolutely emulsified after which effectively chopping up the chickpeas and greens to the right spoonable, scoopable consistency—we wish neither a {smooth}, hummus-like texture, nor unfastened entire chickpeas rolling proper out of the sandwich and off your plate.

Critical Eats / Maureen Celestine


To construct the sandwich, I really like including toppings like crisp lettuce, juicy tomatoes, a lot of pickled crimson onions, and (if I am feeling formidable) a drizzle of spicy home made zhug. However even with out these additions, the result’s a creamy, recent, savory, and satisfying lunch. Better of all, it comes collectively in only a few minutes and lasts for days within the fridge in order that I can take pleasure in it on repeat all through the week.

This 15-Minute Salad is Half Falafel, Half Hummus, and 100% Scrumptious



Cook dinner Mode
(Preserve display awake)

  • 1/3 cup (90 ml) tahini paste, stirred properly earlier than measuring

  • 1/4 cup (60 ml) lemon juice from 2 lemons

  • 2 tablespoons (30 ml) mayonnaise (see notes)

  • 1 clove garlic, peeled and chopped

  • 1 teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt; for desk salt use half as a lot by quantity

  • 3/4 teaspoon floor cumin

  • 1/4 teaspoon floor coriander

  • 2 tablespoons (30 ml) water

  • 2 (15-ounce) cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed

  • 2 Persian (mini) cucumbers or 1/2 English cucumber (about 4.5 ounces; 120 g whole weight), halved and lower into 1-inch chunks (see notes)

  • 1/2 cup (10 g) picked recent parsley, mint, or cilantro leaves and tender stems (or a mix)

For the Sandwiches:

  • Hearty bread or pita pockets

  • Sliced or chopped tomatoes (optionally available)

  • Romaine or butter lettuce (optionally available)

  • Pickled crimson onions, turnips, or combined greens (optionally available)

  • Zhug (optionally available)

  1. For the Salad: In a meals processor, mix tahini, lemon juice, mayonnaise, garlic, salt, cumin, and coriander and course of till properly mixed, about 10 seconds. With processor working, slowly pour water via feed tube and course of till a {smooth}, emulsified sauce types, about 10 seconds.

    Critical Eats / Maureen Celestine


  2. Add the herbs, adopted by the drained chickpeas and chopped cucumbers to ready sauce in meals processor. Pulse till properly mixed and damaged down however nonetheless chunky, 5 to 7 pulses. Season to style with salt, if wanted.

    Critical Eats / Maureen Celestine


  3. For Making Sandwiches: Add about 1/2 cup chickpea salad to bread or stuff into pita pocket. High with tomatoes, lettuce, pickled crimson onions or different pickled greens, and/or a drizzle of zhug, and serve.

    Critical Eats / Maureen Celestine


Particular Tools

Meals processor

Notes

Tahini tends to separate because it sits, with the solids sticking to the underside of the container and the oil floating to the highest. Ensure to scrape, stir, and shake properly earlier than measuring to make sure a very good mixture of each parts.

If you happen to don’t have cucumbers, celery is an effective substitute on this salad.

To make this salad vegan, use vegan mayonnaise. For a home made model, save the liquid from the chickpeas on this recipe to make our simple vegan mayonnaise with the aquafaba.

Make-Forward and Storage

This salad may be refrigerated in an hermetic container for as much as 3 days.

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