Balela Lebanese salad is warmed cumin chickpeas mixed through fresh tomato, onions and herbs. Can be enjoyed for breakfast, lunch or dinner with your favourite flatbread or part of a mezze.
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Whenever I am stuck for what to eat that’s super quick and healthy, I throw a bowl of balela salad together and happily eat away.
Balela is the Arabic word for cooked chickpeas. It is pronounced Bal-lee-lah. Some pronounce it a little differently, according to region, it is also written as balilah or balila.
🥣Basic Balela Recipe
The foundation of a basic balilah recipe is cooked chickpeas with a little bit of the chickpea juice, lemon, fresh garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper and cumin. This is always eaten with Lebanese pita bread as part of a warm mezze. It’s a typical hearty Lebanese breakfast food. The combination of flavours is warming, non of the ingredients should be skimped on. Extra virgin olive oil is always added on top as a garnish.
For years I’ve been making my balilah as a balela salad with added fresh tomato and onion with herbs. I love the combination of warm chickpeas with fresh produce.
😋Why you’ll love this recipe
- Super quick to make, simply throw all the ingredients together
- Can be enjoyed both warm and cool
- This Lebanese salad recipe can be used as a base to add complementing ingredients
- It's a gluten free vegan salad
✔️What you’ll need
🥘Ingredient Notes
- Chickpeas - dry or canned can be used. If using dry, make sure to precook the chickpeas and use a tablespoon of the cooked chickpea water rather than just water. In this post (due to time constraints) I used organic canned chickpeas and kept the aquafaba to make vegan meringue.
- Herbs should be fresh and not dried
- Cumin is a strong spice and if over used can result in bitterness
🔪Step by Step Guide
Here’s how to make balela salad;
Step 1 - Over medium heat, add chickpeas with water, cumin, garlic, salt & pepper. Once warmed, turn off heat.
Step 2 - Add all ingredients except fresh lemon juice and mix through. Serve by topping with lemon juice and sprinkling extra cumin.
💡What to serve with?
Balilah is perfect for eating with Lebanese flatbread, also known as pita bread. It normally features as part of a warm mezze were you can find items such as fragrant zaatar (a wonderful Lebanese herb blend that I can't live without), creamy baba ghanouj, hummus and more. This salad though can easily be eaten on it’s own. It holds a good amount of protein and is filling.
💭Pro Tips
- Only fresh produce should be used, with the exception of chickpeas and spices. This ensures maximum flavour.
- The ratios of ingredients can be altered to suit your taste, for example I love to load mine up with garlic, however my husband doesn’t.
🍳Variations
- If you’d like your balela salad to be creamy, add a tsp of tahini* and mix it through well. This adds a lovely hint of sesame nutty flavour.
- Use this recipe as a base and then add additional fresh flavours through it. I sometimes love to add fresh cucumbers, red cabbage and red capsicum (bell pepper). Note - The ratio of chickpeas should always be greater than all other ingredients.
- Whilst traditionally balila is served warm, sometimes I like to make a bigger batch and store it in the fridge to eat the next day. I find the flavours to be a little deeper.
🥘Related Recipes
Did you enjoy making the balela Lebanese Salad? I would love to hear from you, leave me a comment below and give me a rating. This will help me sustain Plant Based Folk.
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Janelle x
📖 Recipe
Balela (Lebanese Salad)
Ingredients
- 250 g Chickpeas canned or dry (pre-cook dry variety)
- 3 small Tomato diced small
- ½ small White onion diced small
- 1 handful Parsley flat leaf and roughly chopped small
- 10 leaves Mint roughly chopped small
- 1 small Garlic clove crushed
- 2½ g Cumin
- 15 ml Water if using dry chickpeas, use the cooked chickpea water
- 15 ml Olive oil extra virgin
- 15 ml Lemon juice fresh
Instructions
- Over medium heat, add warm chickpeas with water, cumin and garlic. Once warmed, turn off heat.
- Add all ingredients except fresh lemon juice and mix through. Serve by topping with lemon juice and sprinkling extra cumin.
Video
Notes
- Only fresh produce should be used, with the exception of chickpeas. This ensure maximum flavours.
- The ratios of ingredients can be altered to suit your taste, for example I love to load mine up with garlic, however my husband doesn’t.
- Chickpeas - dry or canned can be used. If using dry, make sure to precook the chickpeas and use a tablespoon of the cooked chickpea water rather than just water. In this post (due to time constraints) I used organic canned chickpeas and kept the aquafaba to make vegan meringue.
- If you’d like your balela salad to be creamy, add a tsp of tahini and mix it through well. This adds a lovely hint of sesame nutty flavour.
- Use this recipe as a base and then add additional fresh flavours through it. I sometimes love to add fresh cucumbers, red cabbage and red capsicum (bell pepper).
- Whilst traditionally balila is served warm, sometimes I like to make a bigger batch and store it in the fridge to eat the next day. I find the flavours to be a little deeper.
ella
thank you janelle for another fantastic vegan recipe. i’m so glad i came across your site
Janelle
Awww, thank you for making my recipes, I appreciate your support
J