Antipasto-Inspired Warm Chickpea Salad

A subtly spicy, hearty, and nourishing chickpea salad. The perfect lunch or filling snack.

As someone who is self admittedly not a huge lunch person, this salad could easily persuade me otherwise! Inspired by the the popularity of bean salads online, my past as a vegan, and my love for Italian cooking, I’ve developed an incredibly simple, one pan meal that takes less than 30 minutes from start to finish.

Chickpeas are cooked with fresh zucchini, cherry tomatoes, onion, garlic, Calabrian chili peppers, and anchovy (trust me), before fresh minced herbs, lemon zest and juice and pepperoncinis (nonnegotiable) are stirred in off the heat.

I’ve served this salad warm atop a slice of toasted bread (it soaks up the extra dressing!) but it is truly just as good cold. This salad keeps brilliantly in the fridge and is almost better the second day after the flavors have had a longer opportunity to “marry”. To make this salad fully vegan, simply omit the anchovy fillets. Happy cooking!