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With fresh seasonal veggies and a creamy tahini sauce, this Israeli-inspired tahini salad is packed with a variety of flavors and textures – there won’t be leftovers! This is a community-favorite recipe our readers always love!
save this recipe!Every recipe on the blog so far has been my own creation. But then Rudolph, one of our readers, emailed me one day. The subject line was, “It’s yours to use or publish as you wish”, and the email was simply this recipe – Rudy’s Sunshine Salad.
So I made it. And it was delicious. And the combination of ingredients and flavors that I never would have thought of on my own inspired me to discover even more reader recipes.
And so this week I’m so excited to be featuring YOUR recipes! I put a call out for recipes and you all delivered. But first, we’re kicking it off with the recipe that started it all. Rudy’s Sunshine Salad!
Reader rating
“This salad is my new obsession. Love that it isn’t a ton of ingredients and is so bright, zesty, crunchy and fresh.” —Megara
Here’s What You’ll Need
This is just an overview – jump to the recipe card for full measurements and printable instructions.
- Limes: We’ll be using both the zest (which adds lime flavor) and the juice (which adds acidity) to bring some power to the salad dressing.
- Tahini: Tahini, or sesame seed paste, can have an overpowering flavor on its own (go ahead and lick the spoon, you’ll see), but it makes a creamy base for the salad dressing and is delightful when mixed up with everything!
- Chickpeas: Use canned chickpeas for simplicity, or cook your chickpeas from dried to save money.
- Cucumbers: You can use either seeded or non-seeded (English) cucumbers here.
- Celery: The bright flavors of the celery balance out the tahini dressing and add a hefty dose of crunch!
- Cilantro: And finally, Rudy’s favorite part of the salad (and mine too!) – the fresh cilantro.
DIY Tahini
You can find tahini in most grocery stores, but we also have a guide to making tahini if you’re feeling adventurous!
Serve it with these cottage cheese stuffed tomatoes!
Rudy’s Sunshine Salad (Israeli-Inspired Tahini Salad)
Ingredients
- 2 limes
- 1 tsp salt
- ¼ cup tahini, 60 g
- ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil, 60 mL
- 1 14-oz can chickpeas, drained, 400 g
- 2 medium cucumbers, cut into bite-sized pieces
- 5 stalks celery, diced
- ½ cup cilantro, finely chopped
Instructions
- Dressing: Grate the zest from 1 lime and add it to a medium bowl, along with the juice from both limes. Whisk in salt, tahini, and olive oil.
- Salad: Add drained chickpeas, diced cucumber, diced celery, and chopped cilantro to a large bowl.
- Toss: Drizzle the dressing over the salad and toss to combine. Serve immediately or store in an airtight container in the fridge.
Nutrition
Nutrition information calculated by Sarah Bond, degreed nutritionist.
did you make this?Leave a comment below and tag @liveeatlearn on social media! I love seeing what you’ve made!Meal Prep it!
Make a batch of this salad and portion it into 4 or 5 meal prep containers with a hardboiled egg and a handful of nuts (like pistachios or almonds).
Soooo refreshing! My go to salad for hot days! I added some red peppers for a pop of color. Delicious 😋
This was a delightful salad. Easy to make and has a great flavor. We made this for a cookout and it was a hit with very little leftover.
This is a nice salad. The Tahini adds a nice creaminess as your recipe says it will. It is a good change up from my usual garden greens salad. Thanks
I was surprised by how good this was! Hubby and my 6 year old agreed. I didn’t add all the olive oil that it called for. I’ll be making this again, for sure!
I see corn in the photo but not in the recipe…..IS there corn in it?
Hi Karen! I think what you’re seeing in the photos is chickpeas 🙂
My new go to for parties and BBQ gatherings. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
So happy to hear it! Enjoy! 😀
TRUST THE RECIPE!!
I wanted to add sweet onion, but I didn’t.
I wanted to add some honey, but I didn’t.
I wanted to add seasonings, but I didn’t.
I wanted to roast the chickpeas, but I didn’t.
I usually have this need to adjust a recipe, but I didn’t!!
AND I’M SO GLAD I DIDN’T!!
This salad is so refreshing and delicious, crunchy and satisfying! It was the perfect compliment to our deer steaks and we wanted to eat it all between the two of us…but we didn’t. Barely. LOL
The only thing we didn’t do was use ALL the dressing, we used half and an extra squirt of lime and it was perfect!
(Our cucumbers and celery might have been smaller and the batch smaller FYI)
Thanks for a GREAT SALAD RECIPE!
YUM!!!
I’m so happy you loved the recipe!! Thanks for popping in to let us know how it went! 😀
Loved this salad and served it as a main course. I put the salad on top of a bed of raw cabbage mix (green cabbage, red cabbage, & shredded carrots. It was excellent.
A winning keeper! So simple to prepare. Definitely flavor improves chilling in refrig for at least a few hours.
New favorite salad! In my serving, added chicken and pumpkin seeds! Thank you for this one!