Fig Salad With Quinoa, Chickpeas & Pomegranate. Great Vegan Salad

Hi everyone! Its time for another blog post about one of the things in life that I take a lot of pride in, my healthy vegan salads! This might seem silly to some, but a delicious, nutritious, and carefully curated salad always brings me joy in the middle of the work day. This weeks salad is my fig salad + many more goodies!

Fig Salad Ingredients

As always, my salads ensure that the maximum amount of nutrients & flavour are included for that 'just right' amount of calories. This salad features the following:

• Figs
• Shredded lettuce
• Fresh Parsley leaves
• Spring onion
• Cherry tomatoes
• Spanish onion
• Pomegranate
• Quinoa
• Chickpeas
• Walnuts
• Tahini (for drizzling on top)

Ingredient Quantities

• 2 fresh figs
• ½ cup of shredded lettuce
• ⅓ cup of fresh parsley leaves
• ¼ cup of spring onion
• ½ cup of cherry tomatoes, halved
• ¼ of a small Spanish onion
• 40 grams of pomegranate seeds
• ½ cup of cooked quinoa
• ½ cup of canned chickpeas, rinsed well
• 3-4 walnuts
• 1 tablespoon of tahini. Add a tiny bit of lemon juice or oil if it's not runny. The idea is for the tahini to be drizzled on top as a salad dressing

Nutrition. Calories & Macros

Perfect for weekday lunches. If you are active or require more calories, you may wish to add more chickpeas, quinoa & tahini to increase the calories. Using the exact quantities stated in the ingredients quantities, this salad contains:

• 495 calories
• 17 grams of protein
• 64 grams of carbs
• 20 grams of fat

Method

I love making this salad as part of an overall meal prep for lunch for the week. I'll often make 1 to 4 salads at one time. Simply multiply the ingredients x3 or x4 and evenly spread into containers to store in the fridge for the week.

To Make This Salad:

1. Add quinoa to the rice cooker and press on. Whilst the quinoa is cooking, prepare your salad ingredients
2. Cut your figs into quarters
3. Finely chop the lettuce so that it is shredded
4. Remove parsley leaves from their stems and roughly chop
5. Open a can of chickpeas and make sure to rinse them well! The liquid in the can cause stomach upset if not rinsed well. TIP: 1 can = 1.5 cans of chickpeas, which is enough for 3 salads
6. Slice the cherry tomatoes into halves
7. Finely chop the spring onion
8. Finely chop the red onion. TIP: Chop the onion in half and soak it in warm water for 30 seconds to 1 minute to remove the intensity of the onion flavour. If you are like me, the red onion flavour lingers on in my mouth for the rest of the day. This trick prevents this!
9. Peel the pomegranate. Check out this video here for how to peel pomegranate like a boss!
10. Count your walnuts. This matters if you are counting macros! Otherwise add as many as you want
11. Add all ingredients to a bowl
12. Drizzle 1 tablespoon of runny tahini over the salad right before serving

Prefer to Watch a Video Over Reading? Press Play To See How To Make The Salad!

How To Peel A Pomegranate 

Check Out More Of My Healthy Vegan Salad Ideas

• Pomegranate Salad With Potato & Quinoa. A great salad idea for a BBQ or a side to a main dish
• Quinoa Chickpea Salad. A great weekday lunch idea
• Mexican Bean Salad. Another great weekday lunch idea. High in protein too!