Chickpea Salad With Cucumber and Roast Lemon Salsa
Updated May 20, 2026
David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Hadas Smirnoff.
- Ready In
- 35 min
- Rating
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Ingredients
1 lemon, thinly sliced (about 12 slices)
6 tablespoons olive oil, divided
Fine sea salt and black pepper
3 mini or Persian cucumbers, cut into 1-inch irregular chunks (about 8 ounces total)
¾ cup diced sweet gherkins or sweet dill pickles (about 4 ounces), plus ¼ cup pickle brine
3 spring onions or scallions, thinly sliced
½ cup (packed) roughly chopped fresh dill
1 medium jalapeño, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon maple syrup
¼ teaspoon celery salt (or fine sea salt)
2 (20-ounce) jars chickpeas or 2 (15-ounce) cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
½ cup (5 ounces) plain Greek yogurt
½ cup mayonnaise
1½ tablespoons whole-grain mustard
¼ teaspoon nigella seeds, to serve (optional)
Preparation
- Step 1
Heat the oven to 425 degrees. Toss the lemon slices with 1 tablespoon of oil and ⅛ teaspoon of salt on a small parchment-lined baking sheet, and arrange in a single layer. Roast for about 12 minutes, until the lemon is tender and just starting to char around the edges. Set aside to cool briefly, then finely chop.
- Step 2
In a medium bowl, combine the cucumbers, gherkins, pickle brine, spring onion, dill and jalapeño. Stir in the chopped roasted lemon, along with the remaining 5 tablespoons oil, the maple syrup, celery salt and a few grinds of pepper.
- Step 3
In a separate bowl, mix together the chickpeas, yogurt, mayonnaise and mustard, along with ¼ teaspoon of salt and a few grinds of pepper.
- Step 4
To serve, transfer the chickpeas to a serving platter, spoon over the cucumber salsa and sprinkle with the nigella seeds, if using.
Private Notes
Comments
Would you include metric measurement for the recipes? The NYT is supposedly global, but continues to put imperial measurements in the recipes. I'm not going to spend my time converting just to be able to make them. Thanks in advance.
Just as an aside to the author regarding the accompanying NYT article dated 5/13/26, oysters are not eaten in months without an R because they spawn between May and July; they are thinner and busy reproducing during that time. They were traditionally harvested only between September and March. I grew up within walking distance of an oyster house on the Rappahannock River.
@AK all recipes have metric ! Click on the ruler to the right of the word “ingredients”.
I made this today as written.The lemon, thinly sliced, charred, and very finely chopped was way too bitter/sour. There is also too much mayo yogurt dressing. I’m not a sweet taste person, but had to add an additional teaspoon of maple syrup and some additional salt to compensate for the lemon. I love chickpeas, so I was anxious to make this, but it was disappointing. I’m serving it tomorrow and may slice and add some potatoes.
The lemons were very bitter, and I followed the directions!
I made the recipe (almost) as written, but used spicier pickles instead of the sweet ones, which I did not have. Roasting the lemon slices made a terrific difference, as they caramelized and lent wonderful zest to the salad. I'm making again for a Memorial Day cookout, but will use less mayo and yogurt, and less oil in the salsa.