This flavor-packed salad is a spicy warming and utterly delicious Winter salad that can actually work all year round. It’s packed with roasted veggies like golden crispy chickpeas, tender roasted broccoli rice, and topped with olive oil and maple grilled carrots. And all of this spicy deliciousness is served with a garnish of Egyptian Dukkah spice mix and creamy cooling vegan feta cheese. It’s so incredibly tasty.

This warm Spicy Chickpea carrot salad topped with Feta and Dukkah is everything a fall and winter salad should be. Who says salads ever have to be boring? This tasty chickpea winter salad is out to prove that salads can be bright, tasty flavor explosions.

From the crispy spicy chickpeas that are soft on the inside and golden and crunchy on the outside to the tender olive oil and maple roasted carrots. This salad is a mouthwatering stand-alone dish. You can be serve it as a full meal or a colorful side dish.

What’s great about this easy vegan or vegetarian spicy chickpea carrot salad with Dukkah spice mix

Just about everything
Loaded with spices
Full of healthy immune system boosting ingredients
Easy to make
Works both as a main meal and a side dish
The kind of salad that can make everyone adore salads
Vegan option – just use vegan feta cheese
Gluten-free
A great salad to serve at parties and get-togethers

Vegan feta cheese substitute

It’s easy to replace feta cheese. in fact, there’s several tasty alternatives. The quick easy option is to just buy a vegan feta cheese at the grocery store. It’s a simple approach and usually, the texture is very similar to real feta.

Option 2: You can use soft vegan cashew cheese to replace feta cheese. It has a delicious creamy texture and a similar cooling property as regular feta.

Option 3: Silken tofu is another great option. And it’s one of my favorite vegan feta cheese substitutes. Silken tofu is creamy, soft, and has much of the same crumbly texture as feta cheese. Just season with a little salt and oregano and it will taste amazing.

Quick hack to use veggies

If you have any extra veggies lying around that need to be used this salad is the answer to your kitchen prayers. It’s such a versatile dish that can easily handle any veggie you want to use.

For the recipe pictures, I used a few extra veggies I haven’t listed because they aren’t in the base recipe, but they were nearing their last use date. As long as the veggies can be roasted in the oven they will work well in this salad.

Great veggies to add to this easy spicy chickpea salad:

Zucchini
Eggplants
Peppers
Tomatoes
Onions
Corn
Pumpkin

Dukkah

Dukkah is a savory and delicious spice mix that originates from Egypt. It can be bought in most grocery stores, but my favorite is homemade Dukkah. It’s a quick, easy, and utterly flavorful spice mix that’s very simple to make.

How is this amazing easy spicy chickpea carrot salad made? It’s very simple. Just:

Instructions

For the Dukkah

Heat a non-stick pan and add the finely chopped almonds and sesame seeds. Cook at medium-high heat while stirring occasionally for 3-5 minutes or until the almonds start to turn golden. Add the ground cumin, ground coriander, and salt and stir to combine. Set aside to cool.Store the Dukkah in an airtight container once it’s cooled.

Dressing

Mix all the ingredients for the dressing together in a small mixing bowl and set aside.

Salad

Preheat oven to 350F.
In a large oven-safe pan, add the broccoli rice, drained chickpeas, garlic, half of the spring onions and spices and mix together to combine. Place the carrots on top and drizzle with olive oil. Bake the salad in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until the carrots are golden and just starting to brown at the edges.
Drizzle dressing over the salad and top with vegetarian feta cheese (or vegan cheese). Garnish with fresh herbs and enjoy.