Black bean chickpea salad

Make this easy black bean chickpea salad with simple ingredients in just 10 minutes (if you have cooked chickpeas and black beans handy!), and enjoy your guilt-free lunch/dinner. This vegan and gluten-free salad is healthy, filling, and uber delicious.

Ingredients

• Chickpeas: I cooked chickpeas or garbanzo beans using an instant pot. You can use canned chickpeas also to make this delicious salad. Rinse the chickpeas a couple of times to remove the excess salt.
• Black beans: Like chickpeas, I cooked black beans from scratch at home. Canned black beans also work in this recipe.
• Veggies: This recipe used regular salad veggies - tomato, red onion, and cucumber. Other veggies like carrots, kale, lettuce, cabbage, bell peppers, and zucchini also go well in this bean salad. You can add steamed or baked veggies also.
• Salad dressing: Simple salad dressing with extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, ground black pepper, and salt will flavor the salad very well. I also used ground cumin to add more flavor and taste. 

Instructions

I use an Instant pot for cooking beans and chickpeas from scratch. You can use a canned one as well.

If using canned chickpeas or canned black beans, drain them completely and rinse them well to remove extra salt from them.

Cooking chickpeas

• Wash and soak the chickpeas for at least 8 hours or overnight.
• Drain the water from soaked chickpeas and wash them a couple of times.
• Add these soaked and rinsed chickpeas to the Instant pot inner pot.

• Now add water and salt to the Instant Pot. Close it with its lid and seal the vent.

• Start the instant pot in pressure cook or manual mode and cook for 10 minutes on high pressure.
• You can check my detailed recipe for cooking chickpeas if you wish to cook dried chickpeas.
• When the Instant pot finishes cooking, wait for a natural pressure release. Once the pressure is released, open the Instant pot, drain the chickpeas and keep them aside.

Cooking black beans

• Wash and soak the black beans for at least 6 to 8 hours. Soaking is optional.
• Drain black beans and wash them a couple of times.
• Add these soaked and rinsed beans to the Instant pot inner pot.
• To these soaked beans, add water and salt. Close the Instant pot with its lid and seal the vent.
• Start the instant pot in pressure cook or manual mode and cook for 9 minutes on high pressure. If you use dried black beans, cook them for 30 minutes on high pressure.
• When the Instant pot finishes cooking, wait for a natural pressure release. Once the pressure is released, open the Instant pot, drain the black beans and keep them aside.

Prep the veggies

Slice the cherry tomatoes into half, dice the cucumber and finely chop the onion.

Assemble the salad

Take a large bowl and add all salad dressing ingredients. Whisk it well. I used store-bought finely ground black pepper powder, and hence my dressing color is a little dark.

To this salad dressing, add all the remaining ingredients,

Give a good toss, and the delicious and easy chickpea black bean salad is ready to serve.

Recipe Notes and variations

• You can make this salad with only chickpeas or only black beans also. 
• Other beans like kidney beans, pinto beans, and black-eyed peas also go well in this bean salad recipe.
• I sometimes add steamed or baked potatoes or sweet potatoes to make this salad more filling.
• To make the salad spicier, use red pepper flakes or red chili powder.
• You can top the salad with feta cheese, chopped avocado, or nuts for added nutrition.

Serving suggestions

This back bean and chickpea salad is quite filling and can be had for a light dinner. You can have it with a side of cooked quinoa or millet.

Storage

Fresh salad always tastes best. But you can refrigerate the salad for a day.
I prefer refrigerating or freezing the chickpeas and black beans and then making this salad as and when needed.

As you are here, you will like my other salad recipes.

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