This delicious Roasted Date and Crispy Chickpea Salad is the perfect lunch for healthy foodies who are blatantly uninterested in salads (like me!). It's made with perfectly caramelized dates, chopped pistachios, and the best orange tahini salad dressing that is so flavorful, you'll be licking your plate clean! I'll be making this chickpea salad all summer long because it's loaded with plant based protein, fiber, and healthy fats for an easy, healthy weekday lunch. I think this elevated salad would also be a crowd-pleaser at your next summer get-together!

Oh, and did I mention that this high protein salad is the perfect recipe for weight loss, hormone balance, and constipation? Salad dreams do come true, and as always, I give you more details on the science-backed health benefits below.

This salad is for the salad haters, including myself. First off, I find most salads really uninspiring. What's the point of eating a salad if I need to cover it in cheese and dressing to make it enjoyable? Unless the salad is to die for (which this one is), I just eat my vegetables in different forms, like a green smoothie or a vegan Cookie Dough Milkshake with hidden veggies! What can I say, it takes a lot to woo me in salad land. But, I'm happy to announce, THIS salad does it for me. It's very loosely inspired by the Date and Tahini Salad I had at a fancy plant-based restaurant in Brooklyn, Sofreh, on my recent trip to NYC. I went out to eat with one of my fellow food blogger friends, Justine from Justine Snacks, who you might remember from the Ben & Jerry's copycat recipe challenge we did during quarantine! We were literally mid-bite when I turned to Justine and said, “I MUST make a recipe like this.” ⁣

The crunch of the pistachios. The perfectly crispy chickpeas. The caramel-y sweetness of the Medjool dates. The fresh burst of citrus. Everything you could want in a salad is right here. At the restaurant, the salad serves only as a delicious appetizer. But this vegetarian salad with protein you're about to make is made absolutely meal-worthy with the addition of protein-and-fiber-rich chickpeas and a tangle of fresh herbs, like mint and cilantro.

What makes this date, tahini, and chickpea salad healthy?

In this delicious, high protein salad, I incoroprated ingredients to make this your new go-to recipe for weight loss, hormone balance, and constipation and bloating. Four problems I'd definitely want to solve in one swoop, or dare I say, one salad. If you're dealing with constipation, you MUST listen to my recent podcast episode where Dr. Bulsiewicz, an award-winning and internationally recognized gastroenterologist, reveals the surprising hidden causes of constipation and bloating that NO ONE is talking about. I was so surprised.

Plus, on this episode about blood sugar on the Healthier Together Podcast, resesarcher Jesse Inchauspe tells us how eating balanced meals with protein, fiber,