Make-Ahead Chickpea Salad With Cumin and Celery Recipe

The kind of salad that gets better as it sits—make it one night and pack it for lunch at the office or a picnic the next day.

By
J. Kenji López-Alt
Kenji Lopez Alt
J. Kenji López-Alt
Culinary Consultant
Kenji is the former culinary director for Serious Eats and a current culinary consultant for the site. He is also a New York Times food columnist and the author of The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science.
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Updated January 25, 2024
A blue bowl filled with a salad of chickpeas, celery, Italian parsley, and sliced shallots.

Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt

Why It Works

  • Soaking dried chickpeas in salted water before simmering them in aromatics means you're starting with plenty of flavor even before the salad is assembled. (However, canned chickpeas can be used, too.)
  • Letting the salad rest overnight allows the flavorful cumin vinaigrette to really soak in.
  • Thinly sliced celery provides a fresh and satisfying crunch.

We all have priorities in life. I'm the kind of guy who, even when I'm roughing it, likes to make sure that both I and those around me are well-fed. Invite me along to your camping weekend? Sounds good. But be prepared to eat, and I'm not talking trail mix here.

For me, the ideal car camping food is the same as the ideal packed lunch of picnic food: something that is simple to make, yet feels balanced and satisfying enough to form a full meal in and of itself. Something that is easy to make in bulk and scale up or down depending on how many mouths there are to feed. Something that is good eaten fresh but even better after it's sat at least overnight in a cooler.

This recipe—a simple salad of cooked chickpeas flavored with a cumin-scented vinaigrette and tossed with slivers of crunchy celery, shallots, and parsley—hits all of those marks, particularly the last one. It's the kind of dish you almost should make at least a day in advance before serving if you really want the flavors to peak.

To make it, I like to use dried chickpeas. They're inexpensive, easy to cook, and have far better texture than their canned counterpart. I cook them in water flavored with bay leaves, carrots, celery, and onion. That said, even canned chickpeas will do in a pinch—you're coating them with a vinaigrette, so they'll still get plenty of flavor (especially if you let that flavor soak in overnight).

This isn't a fussy salad, but if you're the fastidious type, you can peel the celery to give it a nicer texture. I'm often the fastidious type, even when camping.

When my wife and I headed out to Big Sur, I packed this into large quart-sized mason jars (I love that they seal up tight so you can just bring the empty jars back and throw 'em in the dishwasher), and okay, we also brought along a half dozen other soups and salads for the trip. Sometimes I just can't help myself.

October 2014

Recipe Details

Make-Ahead Chickpea Salad With Cumin and Celery Recipe

Prep 5 mins
Cook 75 mins
Active 10 mins
Total 80 mins
Serves 4 to 6 servings
Cook Mode (Keep screen awake)

Ingredients

  • 1/2 pound dried chickpeas (garbanzo beans), soaked overnight in cold salted water at room temperature

  • 1 bay leaf

  • 1 carrot, cut into 3-inch segments

  • 1 onion, split in half

  • 2 stalks celery, one thinly sliced crosswise, one cut into 3-inch segments, divided

  • Kosher salt

  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

  • 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

  • 6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

  • 1 small shallot, thinly sliced

  • 1/2 cup roughly chopped fresh parsley

  • Freshly ground black pepper

Directions

  1. Drain chickpeas and place in a large pot with bay leaf, carrot, onion, and the segmented celery stalk. Cover with cold water by 2 inches, season with salt, bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and cook until the chickpeas are tender but still hold their shape, about 1 hour. Discard bay leaf, carrot, onion, and celery. Drain and rinse under cold running water until chilled. Let drain in a colander set in the sink while you prepare the rest of the salad.

  2. Combine cumin and vinegar in a large bowl. Whisking constantly, slowly drizzle in olive oil. Add shallot, sliced celery, parsley leaves, and drained chickpeas. Toss to coat with dressing and season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve immediately, or for better results, store overnight in a covered container in the refrigerator. Salad will keep for up to 3 days.

Notes

For best flavor and texture, use dried chickpeas. For faster results, use two (15-ounce) cans of drained and rinsed chickpeas and start recipe from step two.

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Nutrition Facts (per serving)
273Calories
16gFat
26gCarbs
8gProtein
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Nutrition Facts
Servings: 4 to 6
Amount per serving
Calories273
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 16g20%
Saturated Fat 2g11%
Cholesterol 0mg0%
Sodium 333mg14%
Total Carbohydrate 26g9%
Dietary Fiber 5g19%
Total Sugars 5g
Protein 8g
Vitamin C 9mg45%
Calcium 38mg3%
Iron 2mg13%
Potassium 351mg7%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)

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