Oil-Free Chickpea Salad (Kabuli Chana Salad)

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Oil-Free Chickpea Salad is a protein-rich, everyday Vegan salad made using chickpea or garbanzo beans, or Kabuli chana. This Kabuli chana salad along with some veggies makes a completely healthy summer meal.

Benefits of Chickpeas

Chickpeas are a good source of fiber and protein and fall into the low GI index food category. They help you keep fuller for longer, due to slow digestion. It may help you promote weight loss. 

Recipes with Chickpeas or Kabuli Chana

Being a vegetarian, I need good sources of protein that are low calorie. I incorporate such beans and legumes extensively in my diet. With Chickpeas, I love to make these vegan snacks and dips like Beetroot Hummus, Golden Turmeric Hummus, Baked Falafel etc. 

For my snacks, I make this Herb Roasted Chickpeas, and for a meal, I make Brown Rice Chickpea pulao or Chole. 

Salad with chickpeas is one of my go-to dishes. I generally soak the chickpeas and freeze them. It helps me when I have not planned any dish or at times, just need to make it really quick. The soaking time is saved. 

My salads are generally oil-free and with a minimum dressing. I do not prefer adding any extra oil or adding more fat or calories to it. 

If you like to check more such simple salad recipes, check this Indian Style Sprouted Mung Bean & Mango Salad, which uses sprouted mung bean and raw mango. A few veggies and oil-free salads I love are Raw Zoodles Salad (Zucchini noodles), Lettuce, Pear and Grapefruit Salad, Kohlrabi, Carrot and Spinach Salad, and this nutritious Raw Watermelon Rind Salad which uses Watermelon Rind.

Oil-Free Chickpea (Kabuli Chana) Salad Recipe

Veggies one can add in Oil-Free Chickpea Salad

The salad uses everyday ingredients available at home and is very versatile. One can add in the ingredients as per their choice. I prefer to add some onion and tomatoes to it. One can add cucumber, pepper, avocado etc. 

Spices and flavouring in Kabuli Chana Salad

I simply season it with my Green Coriander chutney and green chilly for the spicy kick. If one does not prefer green chilly too, it can be replaced with red paprika powder which is not very hot.

To add a sweetish taste, I like to add my homemade Sonth using Jaggery (Tamarind Jaggery Chutney). 

But if you do not make any of the chutney do not worry, you can simply replace the Green Coriander chutney with some chopped green chilly or red paprika, fresh coriander leaves, and fresh mint leaves. 

Replace honey/maple syrup or Jaggery powder or a teaspoon of sugar for the sweet chutney and you would be sorted. 

I even call this my chaat, as I add Green Coriander chutney, Sonth, and lemon juice to it. The chaat flavors come out really well in this.

The next thing is Lemon/Lime juice and chaat masala. Again chaat masala is a personal preference but it complements the spices and kicks in with the lemon juice. Lemon juice gives a nice taste to the salad and it is good to incorporate it into your daily diet.

Coriander is again used as a garnish and as a herb to flavour the salad. One can replace this with Parsley if you do not have coriander.

Replacements for Chickpeas

One can use the Black Chana or Kala chana or Desi Chana instead of Chickpeas or Kabuli Chana. More about what is Black Chana or Kala chana or Desi Chana in this recipe of Kala Chana Amti (Black Chickpeas Curry). Whole soaked moong or Moong Sprouts can also be used here instead of chickpeas.

YouTube Channel

So here goes the recipe of Oil-Free Chickpea Salad

Oil-Free Chickpea Salad

Oil-Free Chickpea Salad is a healthy and protein-rich, Vegan salad made using chickpea or garbanzo beans or Kabuli chana.

5 from 4 votes

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Course: Salad

Cuisine: Indian

Keyword: Chickpeas, Oil-Free, Salad, Vegan

Prep Time: 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes minutes

Soaking Time: 8 hours hours

Servings: 2 People

Author: Renu Agrawal-Dongre

Equipment

• Pressure Cooker
• Instant Pot
• Bowl

Ingredients

• 1 Cup of Boiled Chickpeas -Kabuli Chana
• 1-2 teaspoon of Lemon Juice -as per taste
• 1 tablespoon of Sonth using Jaggery -Tamarind Jaggery Chutney – Optional and one can Replace with 1 teaspoon of Honey/Maple Syrup/Jaggery Powder / Sugar
• 1 tablespoon of Green Coriander chutney – Optional and skip if you do not have one.
• 1 Green chilly finely chopped – optional – -Replace with red paprika powder
• Coriander finely chopped – as required
• ¼ cup Onion finely chopped
• ½ Cup Tomato finely chopped
• Salt
• 1/4 teaspoon Chaat Masala or to taste – Refer notes for Gluten Intolerance

Instructions

Cooking of Chickpeas

• Clean and rinse the chickpeas.
• Soak the chickpeas for 6-8 hours or overnight.
• Drain the water and pressure cook it for 3-4 whistles or as per your cooker settings.
• If using Instant pot, pressure cook on high pressure for 20 minutes.
• Let the pressure release naturally.
• Once the pressure is released in the pressure cooker, and the Pin dropped in an Instant pot, open and let it cool.
• Do not let the chickpeas in the pressure cooker for a long time, else it gets soggy or mushy.

Assembling Oil-Free Chickpea Salad

• In a large bowl, add all the ingredients. I.e. Boiled Chickpeas (Drain the water), Sonth, green chilly chutney, onion, tomato, coriander, lemon juice, chaat masala and salt.
  
• Mix everything.
  
• Garnish with chopped coriander and serve.

Notes

• There is no fixed ratio or proportion of ingredients here. One can adjust as required.
• Canned chickpeas can be used too.
• Soaking Chickpeas swells it. It almost increases to 3 times. So if you need 3 cups of Soaked chickpeas, you would need to soak 1 cup of chickpea. Once the chickpeas are cooked, do not let them sit for long in the pressure cooker.
• Once the pressure has released, open the lid and let it cool. Keeping it for long makes it mushy or soggy.
• If you do not have the time of 6-8 hours for soaking, soak it in hot water for 2 hours. It should work.
• Shop brought chaat masala might have gluten due to asafoetida powder being added. If you are making it at home, skip the asafoetida or use pure form i.e. rock form, or skip the chaat masala completely. 

 

 

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Disclaimer: I am not a nutritionist. The nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and is an estimate only. It varies depending upon the product types or brands.

Updates

The recipe first appeared on Cook with Renu on 14th May 2015. Today, 16th April, I have updated the pics, content and added a Recipe card.

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