Lunch recipe · no cooking

Lemon-herb chickpea salad

Name: Lemon-Herb Chickpea Salad
Prep time: 15 min
Total time: 15 min
Yield: 2
Ingredients: 1 x 400 g tin chickpeas, drained and rinsed (about 240 g drained); 150 g cherry tomatoes, halved; 1/2 cucumber, diced; 1 small red pepper, diced; 60 g baby spinach, roughly chopped; 2 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley; 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil; 2 tablespoons lemon juice; 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard; Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Chickpeas, cucumber, tomatoes, red pepper, spinach and parsley tossed with a simple lemon and olive-oil dressing. This is a fresh vegetarian lunch that fits the site's wider Mediterranean-style planning approach — not a treatment for fatty liver.

15 minprepNo cookmethod2servingsVegetarianpattern

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Fresh chickpea salad with cucumber, tomatoes and herbs in a glass bowl — A real-food serving photograph for this recipe. Your finished chickpea salad will vary with the vegetables, herbs and dressing you use.

Why this combination

A practical Mediterranean-style lunch pattern

Current European MASLD guidance recommends improving overall diet quality in a Mediterranean-style direction, with more foods such as vegetables, legumes and wholegrains, while limiting ultra-processed foods rich in sugars and saturated fat and avoiding sugar-sweetened drinks. Mayo Clinic's current MASLD guidance also includes legumes and beans as useful protein-rich foods within a Mediterranean pattern.

This recipe uses chickpeas as the main protein-rich ingredient and adds several vegetables plus a small amount of olive oil. The NHS also suggests wholemeal wraps, hummus and cooked vegetables as practical lunch building blocks. None of that means this salad cures, reverses or directly treats MASLD; it is simply an ordinary lunch that fits the broader food pattern used across this site.

Personal needs differ. If you have diabetes medication, kidney disease, advanced liver disease, food allergies, swallowing difficulties, unplanned weight loss or another condition that changes what or how much you should eat, use the advice from your own clinician or dietitian.

The complete recipe

Lemon-herb chickpea salad

This is a no-cook lunch for two. Rinsing the canned chickpeas and chopping the vegetables are the only real prep jobs.

Ingredients

1 × 400 g tin chickpeas, drained and rinsed (about 240 g drained)
150 g cherry tomatoes, halved
½ cucumber, diced
1 small red pepper, diced
60 g baby spinach, roughly chopped
2 tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley
1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp Dijon mustard
To taste freshly ground black pepper

Method

1
Drain and rinse the chickpeas, then add them to a large bowl with the tomatoes, cucumber, red pepper, spinach and parsley.
2
Whisk the olive oil, lemon juice, Dijon mustard and black pepper in a small cup or jar until combined.
3
Pour the dressing over the salad and toss gently so the vegetables and chickpeas are evenly coated.
4
Divide between two bowls or lunch containers and serve straight away, or keep chilled until lunchtime.

Packing it for later? Keep the salad chilled until you eat it. If you want to keep the leaves crisper, carry the dressing separately and toss it through just before serving.

Three easy variations

Keep the base, change the direction

The chickpea-and-vegetable base is deliberately simple so you can vary it without creating a completely different shopping list.

Herby yoghurt

Swap the olive-oil dressing for plain yoghurt, lemon and herbs if that better suits the meal.

Wholegrain bowl

Add a small portion of cooked barley, quinoa or brown rice to turn it into a grain bowl.

Wrap filling

Roughly mash some of the chickpeas, then use the salad as a filling for a wholegrain wrap.

Use it in the wider plan

From one lunch to a workable week

This recipe is one lunch option, not a complete diet. Put it into the Meal Planner, use the Shopping List Builder for the ingredients you actually need, or browse the Lunch hub for a different format.

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Evidence checked 18 August 2026

Sources used for the food-pattern context

See our editorial policy, evidence policy and medical disclaimer.