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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Browse all Mediterranean recipes.
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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.
Countless recipes on this website are making me tremendously happy to not only dig into many foods Ive enjoyed but never brought home!
I have bookmarked so many, and can’t wait to keep reading.
They’re so fresh and simple, and going vegan in the very near future, combined with the affordability of good produce and not needing meat or dairy… This is so wonderful. Thank you for all your work!
Thank you so much, Patrick! This made the whole team’s day over here!! 🙂
This is the best salad I have had in a long time. So tangy and flavourful!
Hi, Lauren! Thanks for letting us know how much you liked the salad. It’s a favorite around here too along with this Mediterranean 3 Bean Salad.
I have a chick pea hater in the house. Wont eat them if he sees them. Does it hummus lol! Any suggestions for another high protein bean i should try?
Cannellini?
Black eyed peas?
Thoughts?!
I made this yesterday and it was SO delicious.
So many different ingredients melded into perfection. The whole family loved it.
I absolutely love this salad. This is my second time making it in as many weeks. Thank you Suzy for all the inspiration! I am definately a Mediterranean Dish lover.
Yay! Thanks, Bev!
I made this and it was delicious! I used white balsamic because that’s what I had on hand. I also added some sliced hot banana peppers. Great recipe.
I made this today and when I tasted it I actually gasped at how delicious it was. So much more fun than my plain old cucumber tomato red onion salad I have been making. This goes into the rotation for sure. Love love love!!!
Yay! Thanks, Katherine!
Hi Suzy, this salad is delicious!
One thing I was not sure about – I used canned chickpeas and when I started mixing the chickpeas with the other ingredients, the chickpeas pop out of their skin, leaving the skins separated in the salad.
I wasn’t sure whether it was needed to separate the skins before making the salad and if so, what is the best way to do it?
Thanks
Hi, Rachel. There’s really no need to separate the skins from the chickpeas here. Even if they pop out, the skins are still edible, so no worries. If you’d really like to remove the skins, Suzy has a method she explains in her hummus recipe.
This is amazing. It didn’t take me over an hour to make, though. I added an English cucumber, and it went great. This recipe is my new obsession.
This is perfect. I’ve made it several times now for lunch. It’s flavorful and nutritious and I like how it’s not too heavily dressed.
Great party of flavors! Comments were made about the freshness, the added mint flavor, and a question “what’s in the dressing?” I’d never used Aleppo pepper or sumac. Thank you! But I have to agree with a previous comment, it took me over an hour to prep and make the salad too. It won’t stop me from making again 😃
I made this Balela Salad to go with the Easy Balsamic Chicken for dinner tonight. So delicious!! I love all of the Mediterranean Dish Recipes.
OMG! Yeuss. This is a perfect salad with a lot of substance and flavor. Part of my weekly rotation as I try to adjust my eating habits to be more healthy. Love this, thank you!
Our pleasure, Dan. So glad you enjoyed it!
Your salads are always so nice and fresh. I really liked this salad and I like the idea that you can make it ahead and it is still nice to serve later on. I like the idea of pairing grape tomatoes with sundried tomatoes. This salad definitely has a unique and delicious flavour!
Thanks, Sharon!
You are the best ❤️
This looks delicious! I don’t like the taste of parsley at all, is there a different herb I could substitute?
Hi, Amy. You can simply omit the parsley here, if it’s not something you enjoy.