Balela salad is an all-time favorite nutrition-packed power salad. It’s fresh, satisfying, and totally festive. This is not your basic chickpea salad recipe!
Let’s start with a simple definition. In Arabic, the word “balela” means “cooked chickpeas.” Balela salad is an ancient Middle Eastern chickpea salad. It is simple, wholesome, bright, and flavor-packed. A winner on all fronts!
There are many variations of balela salad, but this recipe is closer to what you’d find in the restaurants and food joints of Alexandria, Egypt.
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Balela Salad My Way
The gist: cooked chickpeas, chopped veggies, copious amounts of fresh herbs, and Mediterranean favorites like olives and sun-dried tomatoes. A zesty salad dressing with garlic and sumac brings everything together.
Tip: to allow the flavors to meld, make the balela salad ahead of time, at least a half hour before serving!
Turn Your Balela Salad Into a Meal!
Clearly this beautiful and festive salad can be served as part of a special dinner. But with nourishing and satisfying chickpeas, being the star ingredient in balela salad, it can really stand alone as a meal. You can also serve it in warm pita pockets with a drizzle of tahini, or add it to an impressive vegetarian mezze platter with baba ganoush and roasted red pepper hummus.
Have You Heard About the Half Cup Habit?
I get excited when I see balela salad at my local deli. Good on them! It’s one brilliant way to pack lean protein and plant-based nutrition into your diet! And if there were a list of textbook Mediterranean diet recipes, Balela salad would make the top!
As you know, one of the powerful secrets of the Mediterranean diet is in nutrition-filled pulses, like dry chickpeas, lentils, peas, and beans. Pulses pack a lot of protein, and they are rich in complex carbohydrates, fiber and B vitamins!
If you don’t already eat a good portion of pulses, a simple goal would be to add to your diet just ½ cup of pulses three times per week (a total of 1 ½ cups of pulses per week, which is what USDA recommends). This is what USA Pulses and Pulse Canada call the Half-Cup Habit! Check it out here. And, I’ve included some more of my favorite recipes below!
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Balela Salad
Ingredients
For the Salad
- 3 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas (or 2 15-ounce cans chickpeas), drained and rinsed
- 1/2 green bell pepper, chopped
- 1 jalapeno, finely chopped (optional)
- 2 1/2 cups grape or cherry tomatoes, halved if you’d like (or you can leave them whole)
- 1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes
- 3-5 green onions, chopped (both white and green parts)
- 1/3 cup pitted Kalamata olives
- 1/4 cup pitted green olives
- 1/2 cup chopped parsley leaves
- 1/2 cup chopped mint or basil leaves
For the Dressing
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1 teaspoon sumac
- 1/2 teaspoon Aleppo pepper
- 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper (optional)
- Kosher salt
- Black pepper
Instructions
- Mix the salad. In a large bowl, mix the chickpeas, bell pepper, jalapeno (if using), tomatoes, green onion, sun-dried tomatoes, olives, and herbs.
- Make the dressing. In a separate bowl or jar, add the oil, vinegar, lemon juice, garlic, sumac, Aleppo pepper, and red pepper (if using). Season with salt and pepper to taste and whisk to combine.
- Dress. Drizzle the dressing over the salad and mix gently to coat. Ideally, leave aside for 30 minutes before serving, or cover and refrigerate until you’re ready to serve.
- Serve. When ready to serve, give the salad a quick mix and taste to adjust seasoning if at all needed. Enjoy!
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Notes
- Turn your babela into a meal! This wholesome, nutrition-packed salad can easily be turned into a meal. Serve it in warm pita pockets with a drizzle of tahini. Or add it to an impressive vegetarian mezze platter with baba ganoush and roasted red pepper hummus.
- Recommended for this recipe: Early Harvest Greek extra virgin olive oil (from organically grown and processed Koroneiki olives). And from our all-natural spice collection: Sumac and Aleppo Pepper.
- Visit our shop to browse quality Mediterranean ingredients including olive oils, honey, jams, and spices.
Nutrition
*This post has recently been updated with new information for readers’ benefit.
Do you seed the jalapeno?
Hi, Heather. Yes, I prefer to seed the jalapeno.
Delicious! My husband doesn’t like chickpeas, so I used black eyed peas. I substituted white balsamic vinegar as I had no white wine vinegar and an olive oil infused with basil as fresh basil out of season. Served it over bed of fresh spinach salad. What a great meal!!
Sounds wonderful, Lynda!
This looks good! Can I leave out the olives (i don’t like them) or will it be missing something? Thanks.
Hi, Theresa. You can omit them if you prefer.
This was the best salad I’ve found yet! I’ve been doing the Mediterranean diet for almost two months. I despise lettuce salads and this website has made things so much better!!
Thanks, Lori! Love hearing that!
I made this last night and it was easy and so very good!
I just made the salad. Yum!!!!
Hi Suzy
I was hoping you could give me advise with choosing olives from the grocery store. I am never sure what brand to use so I kind of stay away from them. Where I live we only have an Ingles to choose from. Do you have a recommendation for kalamata [pitted] and green olives for yout Balela salad. Thanks
Hi, Paula! The brand I tend to grab most often is Pearls olives, but it really does not really matter that much.
Suzy, I just love your recipes, including Balela Salad. I have one favor to ask, though – when you list nutrition per portion, would it be possible to actually say what the portion is? A cup? Two cups? what? for us on a diet Mediterranean plan, it is important to know. Thank you very much!!!
Hi, Vera! Thanks for the feedback, and I totally understand. Unfortunately, at the moment, we use a basic nutrition calculator that does not allow us to do that. It really just gives us a best estimate for each recipe’s nutritional information. We are working to improve in this area, though!
What a gorgeous and deliciously healthy salad! The flavor is as bright as the beautiful colors and presentation it makes. I was never a big fan of chickpeas except in hummus until now. I have had sumac in my spice drawer for some time, but have not used it – we loved the fresh flavor it added to the dressing. Now I need the Aleppo pepper.
I have been using some of your recipes since last summer when I found you as I was looking for ideas for a mezze platter. That has become my go-to for casual entertaining and is always well received. Now I will add the Balela to go along with the platter. We enjoyed it so much and I can’t wait to share it with others! Thank you so much for all of your fresh, flavorful recipes!
My pleasure, Cynthia! I’m so glad you’re finding recipes you love here!
Spectacular. Such a wonderful, fresh side. I served it with your lemon chicken, which it pairs very well with. I will be making this again!
I’ve made this delicious salad several times this summer. At first glance it looks like a lot of chopping but it’s very easy to prepare. Last weekend I started to make it and realized I didn’t have any chick peas so I used fava beans instead. We had leftovers and i found that it tasted even better after it set overnight in the fridge. I always serve it cold but my hubby and I found that it’s also delicious warm especially with a dab of yogurt on top
Thank you for sharing, Joy!
So easy and so good!
Thank you, Rebecca!
Delicious! With a really nice kick to it with the jalapeno.
Thanks, Avril!
Best balela ever. The ratio of of chickpeas to the rest of the salad ingredients was just right. The dressing was well-balanced. Thanks for sharing!
My pleasure, Elena! So glad you enjoyed it!
Great salad, but never know chick beans, garbanzo, hummus called Balela in any language, please in light me thanks!!
So glad you enjoyed the recipe, Mimi!
You mentioned cooked chickpeas but there’s no “recipe” to cook them?
Hi Julie, the recipe uses canned chickpeas or already cooked chickpeas if you have them. To cook chickpeas from scratch, you can check out this post: https://www.themediterraneandish.com/24-awesome-chickpea-recipes-that-arent-hummus/ And view the section under “How to Cook Chickpeas from Scratch”