Chickpea Chopped Salad with Pita Chips

Meet your new go-to side dish: Chickpea Chopped Salad with Pita Chips. This fresh, colorful dish is flavor-packed, with creamy feta cheese meeting briny olives, fresh veggies and chickpeas, which also add a healthy dose of protein and fiber to fill you up and keep your gut running smoothly. Crushed multigrain pita chips add crunch while they soak up the flavors of the tangy dressing. Bottom line: It’s healthy, quick to prepare and utterly delicious. Read on for our best tips and tricks for making this salad your own. 

Tips from the EatingWell Test Kitchen

These are the key tips we learned while developing and testing this recipe in our Test Kitchen to make sure it works, tastes great and is good for you too!

• To make this salad even more vibrant, opt for multicolored tomatoes or use yellow or orange cherry tomatoes instead of red.
• Persian cucumbers are perfect for this salad. They tend to be sweet, small, have thin skin and very few seeds, which makes prep a breeze. If you don’t have Persian cucumbers on hand, any variety will work—just be sure to peel tougher skins and scoop out the seeds for the best texture and flavor.
• While pre-crumbled feta is convenient and works just fine, we like crumbling our feta from a block. Unlike pre-crumbled feta, it doesn’t contain anticaking agents, which can dry it out and dull its texture.
• If you want to turn this salad into a main dish, try adding some chopped grilled chicken or roasted salmon. You could also add some white beans for a dose of plant-based protein. 

Nutrition Notes

• Chickpeas are loaded with plant-based protein and fiber. Eating foods high in fiber may lead to better gut health as fiber feeds the good bacteria in your gut. Chickpeas are also a source of folate, a B vitamin that helps maintain cell health. 
• The cucumbers in this salad add more than a refreshing crunch. They also contain cucurbitacins, a compound that has been shown to have anti-inflammatory and anticancer benefits. And cucumbers have a high water concentration, which helps promote hydration. 
• Tomatoes get their red hue from lycopene, an antioxidant that may help reduce inflammation in the body. Reducing inflammation can lead to lowered risk of heart disease. Along with lycopene, tomatoes contain phytoene and phytofluene, all carotenoids that may have anticancer properties.