Beetroot Chickpea Salad with Zoodles & Tahini

This roasted beetroot chickpea salad with spiralized zucchini and feta makes a delicious, light yet satisfying meal. Enjoy with a drizzle of simple tahini dressing.

This roasted beetroot chickpea salad makes a delicious, satisfying yet light meal, perfect for this time of year.  It does involve a bit of preparation – slicing, spirilizing as well as roasting – but I promise it’s worth the effort!  Besides, the beets, chickpeas as well as the dressing can be made ahead so putting the salad together takes minutes.

Prepping the beets for beetroot chickpea salad

I used roasted beets in this zoodles salad recipe.  Simply peel the beets, cut into wedges, sprinkle with spices, drizzle over a bit of oil and bake for about 25 minutes.  You can add it into the salad hot, straight from the oven, or cooled.  If you choose the latter option you can roast the beets ahead and just add into the salad when you are ready to serve it.

Prepping the chickpeas

One thing to keep in mind is that the chickpeas should be completely dry before being fried so that they get crispy rather than soggy in the frying pan.  Before you fry them spread them on a sheet of paper towel and pat dry.  If possible leave them to dry for about 30 minutes and then wipe any remaining moisture with a paper towel.

The chickpeas, similarly to the beets, can be added into the salad either hot, straight from the pan, or cooled.  So if you prefer the latter make them ahead to use later.

Using zoodles in salad recipes

Zucchini is one of the best vegetables for spirilizing.  It has the right shape and texture for spiralizing and can be enjoyed raw in salads as well as main dishes.  You can add it to your spiralized vegetable soup, low carb healthy alfredo sauce, or use in this spiralized salad with blueberries.  It takes seconds to turn into veggie spaghetti and looks fantastic in any dish. Because of its mild, fairly bland flavour, it can be combined with virtually any ingredients.  It works really well in this beetroot and chickpeas salad.

Quick and easy tahini dressing

The dressing is really simple and complements all the other flavours in this zucchini salad incredibly well.  It takes about 2 minutes to put together, contains only 4 ingredients and can be made ahead so it’s really convenient.

Putting the salad together

Once you’ve roasted your beets, fried the chickpeas and prepared the dressing (remember you can do this all in advance!) putting this chickpea salad together is a breeze!  Simply spiralize the zucchini, combine with the beets and chickpeas, add your chosen toppings (see ideas below), drizzle over the dressing and enjoy!

Toppings ideas for beetroot chickpea salad

This spiralized zucchini salad is really versatile and can be enjoyed with a number of toppings.  One of them is feta.  It adds a nice tang to the flavour combination and complements the sweet earthy beetroot and nutty chickpeas really well. You may also scatter toasted seeds and/or nuts, as well as thinly sliced green chillies for a bit of bite, over the salad just before serving.

It is up to you which of my serving suggestions you decide to use, though I have to say I’ve included a bit of each in my salad and was very happy with the result.  They add complexity both in texture as well as flavour and go extremely well with the main salad ingredients.

Enjoy beetroot chickpea salad either vegetarian or vegan

You can swap the feta for tofu and enjoy this zucchini salad vegan.  Or you can omit either of these ingredients altogether.  Also it’s absolutely fine to use maple or agave syrup instead of honey in the dressing.

More roasted beetroot recipes

Beetroot Potato Dumpling Recipe

Baked Beetroot and Feta Pasta Salad

Sugar Free Cornmeal Muffins with Beetroot and Olives

You may also like my post including 15 Easy Veggie Spaghetti Spiralizer Recipes.  Check out also this collection of over 15 easy vegan salads.

Print Recipe

Beetroot Chickpea Salad with Zoodles & Tahini

This roasted beetroot chickpea salad with zoodles & tahini makes a delicious, light yet satisfying meal - enjoy it vegetarian or vegan.

Prep Time35 mins

Total Time35 mins

Course: Lunch, Salad

Cuisine: International

Keyword: beets, salad, zucchini

Servings: 3 -4 portions

Author: Monika Dabrowski

Ingredients

• 2 medium zucchinis
• 3 medium beets
• 1 x400g tin chickpeas rinsed, patted dry with a paper towel
• Olive oil
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 2/3 teaspoon each ground coriander and cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon each cayenne pepper, onion granules and garlic powder
• Sea salt and pepper to taste

For the Dressing:

• 1 tablespoon tahini paste
• 5 tablespoons lemon juice
• 5 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon honey or maple syrup
• To serve: chopped cilantro, thinly sliced green chillis, crumbled/cubed feta, sesame seeds.

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 400 F/ 200 C/ gas mark 6. Peel the beetroot and cut into wedges (6 per beet), place in a single layer in a large oven dish, season, sprinkle with the ground ginger, drizzle with a bit of oil (approx. 2 tablespoons) and bake for 25 minutes, turning over halfway through.
• Combine all the dressing ingredients and set aside.
• Spiralize the courgettes and place on a large plate/bowl (or divide into 3-4 individual portions and place on separate plates). Spread the beetroot wedges (either hot or cold) over the zoodles.
• In a large frying pan heat up 1 tablespoon of oil, add the cayenne pepper, ground coriander, cumin, onion granules and garlic powder and stir. Add the chickpeas, give the pan a little shake so they get an even coating of the spices, and fry for 1-2 minutes over a high heat, stirring once in a while.
• Scatter the chickpeas over the beetroot, season to taste (optional), add toppings of your choice (see my serving suggestions above), drizzle the dressing over the whole thing and serve.

Notes

Preparation time includes the time needed to roast the beetroot. The remaining ingredients can be prepared while the beetroot is in the oven. Alternatively prepare the beet, chickpeas and dressing ahead and refrigerate until you are ready to make the salad.

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RECIPE LINK PARTIES

I am bringing my spiralized zucchini beetroot salad to #CookBlogShare, hosted this week by Kirsty@Hijacked By Twins. If you’ve got a recipe share it! The 4 hosts behind #CookBlogShare (I am one of them) will make sure it’s seen by as many people as possible:) Plus you can get featured next week!

Also sharing with Meat Free Mondays, Fiesta Friday, Tasty Tuesdays, Totally Terrific Tuesday, Tickle My Tastebuds Tuesday, Recipe of the Week.