Name: Smashed Avocado Chickpea Salad
Prep time: 5 min
Total time: 5 min
Ingredients: 2 cans chickpeas; 1 1/2 large ripe avocados; 1/4 cup chopped red onion; 2 cloves garlic (finely minced); Juice from 1 lemon or lime; 1 tsp sea salt; 1/2 tsp black pepper; Optional but recommended: 1/4 cup chopped cilantro

This smashed chickpea avocado salad is an easy and delicious lunch you can bring to work, school, or the beach! It takes 5 minutes to prepare, requires no fancy equipment and is made with just six simple ingredients.

two chickpea avocado salad sandwiches stacked on each other

This smashed avocado chickpea salad is probably my most favorite recipe to have in the fridge for simple lunches throughout the week. Second to my popular chickpea tuna salad of course.

Anyway, like this Mediterranean Chickpea Salad, the beauty of this recipe is that it’s perfect for your beach trips this summer, school, work, or if you just want a simple lunch to power you through whatever you’re doing.

It’s made with only 6 simple ingredients you probably already have on hand and can be enjoyed on its own, in a sandwich, as is or with deli meats, in a wrap, basically whatever you can think of!

It’s vegan, gluten free, oil free and so easy to make. Try my healthy egg salad next!

Ingredients

This chickpea salad is made with just a handful of simple of ingredient, most of which you probably already have in your pantry! For this recipe you’ll need:

Chickpeas: Because chickpea salad, duh! We’ll be mashing them up with the avocado to give a texture almost like chicken or tuna salad. You can use canned chickpeas or chickpeas cooked from fresh.

You do not need to cooked canned chickpeas! They have already been cooked, you just need to drain and rinse them. If you want to use chickpeas that have already been cooked from dry, just sub every 1 can for 1.5 cups cooked chickpeas.

Avocado: For creaminess and to keep the recipe moist. Be sure to use a ripe avocado so it can mash easily.

Red onion: For flavor a bit of crunch and flavor. Any color onion will work, but red onion adds the best flavor.

Lemon or lime: For flavor and to naturally preserve the avocado and prevent it from turning brown. I prefer lemon in this recipe, but either will work.

Garlic: Let’s be real I put garlic in everything. Because this recipe is so simple and made with minimal ingredients, the garlic helps add a lot of flavor.

Salt & pepper: For extra flavor. I was pretty generous with each, but feel free to scale back a bit if you prefer!

Cilantro: This is optional but it adds a great flavor. Parsley is also delicious!

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How to make chickpea salad

This chickpea salad can be made a few ways. If you don’t have a food processor, don’t worry, this can be done without any fancy equipment at all.

By hand: To make this recipe by hand, start by adding the avocado flesh to a bowl and mash it very well. Add in the chickpeas and mash until you get smaller chunks.

You can use a fork or a potato masher for this step. Next, add in all remaining ingredients and mix well. Taste and add extra salt, pepper, garlic or cilantro if desired.

With a food processor: Add the drained and rinsed chickpeas with the avocado to a food processor. Process until broken up but a few chickpea chunks still remain.

Transfer to a bowl and add the remaining ingredients. Mix well, taste, and adjust seasonings as desired.

mashed avocado chickpea salad in a bowl with red pepper flakes

Make it a meal!

You can serve this chickpea salad as a sandwich with some lettuce and extra avocado, in a wrap, or just as is!

If you want more protein, you can add some hard boiled egg, grilled chicken, or my lemon pepper salmon on the side.

How to store

Once prepared, this chickpea salad will store in the fridge for about 5 days. The lemon/lime acts as a natural preservative and should help prevent the avocado from browning prematurely.

Be sure to keep it in an air tight container. There is no need to heat it up, so it’s perfect for an on the go lunch!

mashed chickpea avocado salad in a sandwich with lemon

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5 from 7 votes

Smashed Avocado Chickpea Salad

by: claire cary

/ /

Prep: 5

Cook: 0

Total: 5

Ingredients

US Customary – Metric

Instructions

Drain and rinse the chickpeas until no bubbles remain.
Add the chickpeas and the avocado to a food processor and pulse until broken up. OR add the avocado to a large bowl and mash completely, add the chickpeas and mash with a fork until broken up.
Transfer to a bowl or keep in the bowl and add all remaining ingredients.
Mix well. Taste and adjust seasonings as desired.
Serve as is or in a sandwich or wrap.

Notes

If using fresh chickpeas cooked from dry, you’ll need 1.5 cups of cooked chickpeas for every 1 can. You do not need to cook the canned chickpeas, just make sure they are drained and rinsed well.

Any other kind of onion can be used in place of red onion, but red onion does add extra flavor and a pop of color.

If you want the texture of this chickpea salad to be ultra perfect, I suggest removing the chickpea skins before processing/mashing. It can be a tedious task, but if you add the chickpeas between two kitchen towels and rub them around, a lot of the skins should come off on their own.