Roasted Cauliflower Chickpea Salad
Roasted Cauliflower Chickpea Salad, a simple roasted vegetable salad topped with cranberries, pumpkin seeds, and a homemade za’atar vinaigrette. A deliciously easy and flavorful winter salad!
Not sure what to do with cauliflower? We’ve got you covered! This simple winter salad is an exciting and healthy way to use cauliflower and the perfect addition to your weeknight meals. Enjoy it on its own or add to tacos and bowls!
👉 Here are three reasons why you should be making cauliflower chickpea salad with za’atar dressing:
- It takes 30 minutes. In just a few easy steps, this salad is ready in no time. Whether you’re in a time crunch or need to quickly prepare a dish for your next potluck, this is a salad you can’t go wrong with.
- You can make it ahead. Cauliflower chickpea salad is a great meal prep option to have on hand for lunches, quick dinner sides, or to share at gatherings. Simply combine the salad ingredients, store in an airtight container in the refrigerator, and mix in the dressing when you’re ready to use.
- It’s so delicious. Roasting cauliflower brings out new depths of flavor — especially when it’s combined with tasty spices, nutty chickpeas, and tart dried cranberries. You won’t be able to get enough!
Ready to learn how to make a salad with roasted cauliflower and chickpeas? Let’s do it!
🥬 Ingredients
- Cauliflower: One of our favorite vegetables to roast and mix into salads!
- Chickpeas: canned chickpeas bring great flavor and plant-based protein to this recipe. Plus, they become extra crispy when roasted!
- Spices: turmeric and smoked paprika are the spices that bring this salad to life! They add a nice kick and a note of heat to the roasted vegetables.
- Olive oil: you need some olive oil for roasting the cauliflower, which brings flavor and makes it extra crispy. We used extra virgin olive oil, but you can use what you have on hand.
- Butter Lettuce: the greens that bring this salad together. You can use any type of leafy green!
- Shallot: you’ll thinly slice a couple of shallots to add a burst of flavor to the salad.
- Dried cranberries: the best winter salad addition! Their tart flavor is a great complement to the rest of the savory ingredients.
- Pumpkin Seeds: adds a bit of crunch.
- Homemade Za’atar Vinaigrette: we combined za’atar spice with olive oil and sherry vinegar to make the dressing for this recipe.
- Recommended tools: salad spinner, salad dressing shaker, mixing bowl
🥣 How to make (step-by-step photos)
1️⃣ Step One: Preheat oven and prep vegetables
First, preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Prep your vegetables for roasting by combining cauliflower florets and chickpeas with turmeric, smoked paprika, and olive oil in a large mixing bowl.
2️⃣ Step Two: Bake vegetables in the oven
Next, spread the cauliflower and chickpeas out evenly on a baking sheet.
Roast the vegetables in the oven until the cauliflower is tender and golden brown, about 30 minutes.
Halfway through roasting, give the vegetables a quick toss to make sure they are evenly crispy!
3️⃣ Step Three: Prep the dressing
While the vegetables are roasting, make the homemade za’atar dressing.
Combine olive oil, sherry vinegar, stone ground mustard, za’atar seasoning, and a pinch of salt and pepper in a salad dressing shaker or bowl. Shake well to combine and set aside.
4️⃣ Step Four: Assemble the salad
Finally, it’s time to plate your salad. Add washed butter lettuce to your plate and top with roasted vegetables, sliced shallots, dried cranberries, and pumpkin seeds. Add a sprinkle of za’atar seasoning and top with the homemade za’atar dressing.
That’s it! A simple roasted vegetable salad with a homemade vinaigrette that’s ready in under 40 minutes.
❓ Recipe questions + quick tips
Chickpeas are a versatile legume: they go well with just about anything! They taste great when combined with vegetables, including leafy greens, cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, or sweet potatoes. You can mix them into salads, mash them and add to sandwiches, or toss into pasta. Chickpeas also go well with veggie or grain bowls. Another way to use chickpeas is to make them into hummus and use as a dip or spread.
We love roasting cauliflower to bring out its delicious flavor. It is commonly used as a side dish or mixed into salads. Cauliflower tastes delicious when cooked into stir-fries or added to pasta. You can also use it as a low-carb alternative to rice, pizza crust, or potatoes!
Za’atar is a Middle Eastern spice blend featuring a few key ingredients: thyme, sesame seeds, and sumac. Other herbs and spices like oregano, marjoram, cumin, and coriander are commonly mixed in as well. It can be used to season just about everything including veggies, meats, salad dressing, soup, toast, and more!
👉 How to serve
The possibilities are endless for what you can do with this roasted cauliflower chickpea salad! Here are a few ideas to get you started:
- As a side salad with dinner. Switch up your dinner routine! This salad pairs perfectly with just about any dish.
- Use as a topping for tacos. Add a scoop of cauliflower chickpea salad to taco night! It will add a unique boost of flavor and your taste buds won’t be disappointed.
- Mix into a veggie bowl. Combine a serving of this salad with your favorite bowl of roasted veggies, rice, and protein. Try it with our Warm Autumn Grain Bowl.
🧊 How to store
Whether you have leftovers or choose to make this recipe in advance, here are our top tips for storing simple roasted vegetable salad:
- Refrigerator storage: Place the salad in an airtight container in the refrigerator and use within four days. Store the dressing in the refrigerator for up to one week, shaking well before serving again.
- Freezer storage: We don’t recommend freezing roasted cauliflower chickpea salad, as it will lost its quality.
♻️ Sustainable kitchen tips
Roasted cauliflower chickpea salad is a great green eating recipe as it uses preserved ingredients (canned chickpeas) and homemade dressing, which reduces packaging of pre-made dressing bottles. Take your ingredients even further with these tips:
Take advantage of cauliflower season. The best time to make this salad is during the winter months. That’s when cauliflower is in-season, which means it will be more nutritious, higher quality, and better for the planet! Find out when cauliflower is in-season near you here.
Make more dressing than you’ll need. Make extra dressing and store in the refrigerator to use throughout the week on simple side salads with lunch and dinner. This will prevent you from needing to buy dressing from the store.
Use your own pumpkin seeds! Get the most out of the pumpkins that you buy during the fall and winter months by saving the seeds. Simply remove the seeds from the pumpkin, rinse them under cold water and remove any flesh. Dry the seeds and then roast them before tossing into salad.
🥗 More roasted vegetable salad recipes
Love using winter vegetables to make salad? Check out our other roasted vegetable salad recipes:
Looking for more cauliflower recipes? Try our Roasted Rainbow Cauliflower or Chili Lime Cauliflower Tacos.
Roasted Cauliflower Chickpea Salad
Ingredients
For Roasted Cauliflower Chickpea Salad
- 1 whole cauliflower head florets separated
- 1 15-ounce can chickpeas drained
- ½ teaspoon turmeric
- ¼ teaspoon smoked paprika
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 2 whole butter lettuce heads stems removed and chopped
- 1 whole shallot thinly sliced
- ⅓ cup dried cranberries
- 2 tablespoons pumpkin seeds
- ½ teaspoon za’atar seasoning
For Homemade Za’atar Vinaigrette
- 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
- 1 tablespoon stone ground mustard
- ¼ teaspoon za’atar seasoning
- pinch salt and pepper
Instructions
- Roast vegetables: Preheat oven to 400 degree F. In a large mixing bowl, toss cauliflower florets and chickpeas with turmeric, paprika, and olive oil until well combined. Spread mixture evenly on a baking sheet and roast in the oven for 30 minutes, or until cauliflower is browned, stirring halfway to cook all sides. Remove from oven and let cool.
- Build salad: Add butter lettuce, roasted cauliflower and chickpeas, sliced shallots, cranberries, and pumpkin seeds to a salad plate and sprinkle with za'atar seasoning. Top with Homemade Za'atar Vinaigrette (see recipe instructions below).
- Make vinaigrette: Combine extra virgin olive oil, sherry vinegar, stone ground mustard, za'atar seasoning, salt, and pepper in OXO Salad Dressing Shaker and shake well to combine
Notes
- Tools needed: OXO Salad Spinner, OXO Salad Dressing Shaker
- Prep ahead: roast the cauliflower and chickpeas and make Homemade Za’atar Vinaigrette ahead of time to streamline preparation
- Leftovers + storage: store this simple roasted vegetable salad in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to four days; store dressing in OXO Salad Dressing Shaker in refrigerator for up to one week, shaking well before serving again.
Nutrition
UPDATE: This recipe was originally posted in February 2019 and was updated for clarity in September 2021.
This looks amazing. Can’t wait to try it.
It’s one of our favorite new simple salads, I hope you enjoy!
I omitted the cranberries but added some grilled asparagus. It was delicious!
That sounds like a great substitution! You can’t go wrong with grilled asparagus on top of a salad, in my opinion. Thanks for letting us know it worked out well, Jennifer!
I enjoyed the roasted cauliflower in this salad.