This Roasted Cauliflower, Chickpea and Arugula Salad recipe is tossed with arugula, avocado, toasted pine nuts, and my favorite lemon-tahini dressing. Simple, hearty and so delicious!
When my husband and I are craving a fresh and hearty vegetarian salad for dinner, this roasted cauliflower and chickpea number is one of our all-time faves. ♡
Cauliflower florets and chickpeas are tossed together with a quick blend of zesty seasonings and roasted to perfection. Then they are served up hot out of the oven alongside peppery fresh arugula, creamy avocado, crisp red onions, buttery toasted pine nuts, and then drizzled with my favorite dreamy tahini-lemon dressing. It’s a savory salad that we return to again and again because it’s so simple and satisfying. And those vibrant colors always make it a showstopper for entertaining too!
Feel free to play around with the ingredients and swap in whatever nuts, greens, or seasonings you love best. And if you would like to add in an extra protein, grilled chicken would be delicious in this salad too.
Alright, let’s make some salad!
Roasted Cauliflower, Chickpea and Arugula Salad Recipe | 1-Minute Video
Roasted Cauliflower and Chickpea Salad Ingredients
Before we get to the full recipe below, here are a few notes about the ingredients you will need…
- Cauliflower: I recommend using fresh (versus frozen) cauliflower in this salad, so that it will have the best texture once roasted. Here is a step-by-step tutorial for how to cut cauliflower into florets.
- Chickpeas: You will also need one can of chickpeas (garbanzos) for this recipe.
- Seasonings: I like to season the cauliflower and chickpeas with a mix of cumin, garlic powder, onion powder, smoked paprika, salt and pepper for roasting. But feel free to use whatever blend of seasoning blend you love best.
- Greens: I adore the peppery flavor of fresh baby arugula in this salad, but any salad greens that you have on hand will work work here.
- Avocado: Look for a large, ripe one, which you can either dice or thinly slice.
- Red onion: I like the extra bite that thinly-sliced fresh red onions add to this salad, but feel free to briefly rinse the sliced onions under running water for 10 seconds before adding them to the salad if you prefer a milder onion flavor.
- Pine nuts: The buttery flavor of toasted pine nuts is delicious in this salad, but feel free to swap in any other nuts (such as almonds, walnuts, pecans, pistachios) or seeds (such as pepitas or sunflower seeds) that you prefer.
- Tahini dressing: This salad is tossed with a half batch of my favorite Dreamy Tahini Dressing, made with tahini, lemon juice, garlic, cumin, salt and pepper. (I usually make extra dressing while I’m at it, though, to save for a salad later on in the week!)
- Extra lemon wedges: I also recommend serving the salad with extra lemon wedges, in case people would like to make their individual portions extra lemony.
Potential Recipe Variations
This cauliflower salad recipe is incredible flexible, so feel free to tweak and customize it to your liking! Here are a few suggestions to try…
- Add some extra fresh herbs. I really love adding some fresh mint, cilantro, or parsley to this salad if I happen to have some on hand.
- Play around with the chickpea/cauliflower seasoning. Feel free to use whatever seasonings you love best to roast the cauliflower and chickpeas. We just recently made this salad again using only za’atar seasoning (plus salt and pepper) and it was delicious. You can also add some cayenne for extra heat.
- Use a different veggie in place of cauliflower. Roasted broccoli, roasted sweet potato or roasted Brussels sprouts would also work well in this salad in place of the roasted cauliflower.
- Use different greens. Just about any fresh salad greens could work here in place of the baby arugula.
- Use different nuts/seeds. Feel free to also swap any toasted nuts (such as walnuts, almonds, pistachios) or seeds (such as pepitas or sunflower seeds) in place of the toasted pine nuts.
More Favorite Salad Recipes
Looking for more hearty vegetarian salad recipes to try? Here are a few of my faves…
Roasted Cauliflower, Chickpea and Arugula Salad
Equipment
Ingredients
Salad Ingredients:
- 1 medium head of cauliflower, cut into small florets
- 1 (15 ounce) can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon each: ground cumin, garlic powder, onion powder, smoked paprika
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly-cracked black pepper
- 5 ounces fresh arugula
- 1 large ripe avocado, thinly sliced
- 1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced
- 1/3 cup toasted pine nuts
- extra lemon wedges, for serving
Dreamy Tahini Dressing:
- 1/4 cup tahini
- 3 tablespoons freshly-squeezed lemon juice
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 clove garlic, pressed or minced
- 2-4 tablespoons warm water
- fine sea salt and freshly-cracked black pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Prep the oven and baking sheet. Heat oven to 425°F. Mist a large baking sheet with cooking spray.
- Prep the cauliflower and chickpeas. In a large bowl, add the cauliflower florets, chickpeas, oil, sea salt, cumin, garlic powder, onion powder, smoked paprika and black pepper. Toss gently until combined, then pour the mixture out onto the baking sheet and spread out in an even layer.
- Bake. Bake for 25-30 minutes, stirring once halfway through, until the cauliflower is tender and slightly charred around the edges. Transfer the pan to a wire cooling rack.
- Make the dressing. Meanwhile, in a small bowl or mason jar, whisk together tahini, lemon juice, cumin, garlic, and 2 tablespoons warm water until smooth. Add extra warm water as needed, until the dressing reaches your desired consistency, then season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Finish the salad. In a large bowl or serving plate, combine the arugula, avocado, red onion, pine nuts, roasted cauliflower and chickpeas. Drizzle evenly with the tahini dressing, serve with extra lemon wedges for squeezing, and enjoy!
Did you make this?Let me know how it turned out in the comments below!
Delicious. I’m trying to get my family to eat vegetarian three times a week. I’ve had a lot of push back. I served this tonight with one modification I used Arugula and spinach. I also allowed the family to choose their dressing as long as they at least taste this one. The dressing was gone, the salad was gone and I thought they were going to lick the plate. This is a keeper and repeater
Really good recipe! I made this for my wife for a surprise when she came home from work and she loved it. I added red peppers to it which added a lot more flavor. I also did pumpkin seeds instead of the pine nuts because that is what I had in the pantry. Will have to make this one again soon!
Made this tonight exactly as described and everyone loved it! Simple but delicious. The flavor combo was everything. Served it up with some grilled bread–yum! Will make again and again.
This was so good! Didn’t have avocado or pine nuts but added golden raisins and shallots. Adding water to the dressing is a necessity, so don’t skip that step.
This was a great salad for those of us who are more plant based in this house. Hard to convince the husband that he wouldn’t be starving, but it’s a slow process to get him over to our side. This dressing was surprisingly easy. I originally thought I would just buy a dressing to keep it fast, but am trying to buy less plastic and another bottle of dressing wasn’t needed in our fridge. I didn’t have pine nuts, but had slivered almonds that needed to be used up so threw those in. I’m thinking that next time I’ll roast them in the oven for a couple of mins at the end of the chickpeas and cauliflower roasting. Thanks for this great recipe. It will be in our rotation!
Absolutely delicious!!! I got a “wow” from the fiance, so that says a lot :) Thank you for sharing such a wonderful recipe.
Wow this was so good!! I finally caved and bought some smoked paprika just for this recipe and I’m glad I did, I don’t think regular paprika would have the same effect. This is the first of your recipes I’ve tried and it definitely makes me want to try more.
Easy, beyond delicious and highly addicting! A family favorite!
I made this salad for dinner and I could easily eat this several times a week. Although I don’t care for the taste of maple syrup, I always make a recipe as written the first time and then make my adjustments. I will leave the syrup as it did not overwhelm the dressing at all. Honesty, this salad is absolutely, positively delicious. I am new to this website and so excited to have found it!!
This is hearty! Interesting and wonderful flavors, but I am not sure it needs the pine nuts. Every other ingredient registers and is vital. My husband was skeptical, but he loved it. I used a baby kale mix because that is what I had on hand, and it was wonderful. My only issue is that the dressing will not thin out, but that is a minor issue. (I did the hot water, and it had seized up again by the time I served it.) Thanks for a great salad, and good luck in your new life!
Wonderful, so happy to hear it! And yep, feel free to tinker around with adding extra water to that dressing if need be. :) And thank you!