Greek Salad with Artichokes, Chickpeas, and Vegan Feta

Here’s a lively Greek salad with artichokes and chickpeas, featuring a pop of flavor from vegan feta and black olives. You can buy fantastic vegan feta readymade, or make your own with tofu.

Especially when the weather gets warmer, I’m often hankering after a salad for lunch, but I don’t want to spend a lot of time with prep in the middle of the workday. Fortunately, this salad can be made in minutes, and doesn’t need a whole lot of chopping.

Ingredients for this salad

• A small head of romaine or other lettuce (or a few big handful of mixed baby greens)
• Grape or cherry tomatoes
• Black olives
• Chickpeas
• Artichoke hearts (marinated or not)
• Red or orange bell pepper
• Red onion
• Vegan feta or homemade tofu feta (part of this recipe; you’ll need half for this salad)
• Bottled or homemade Basic Vinaigrette Salad Dressing
• Fresh lemon or Lemon juice

Vegan feta brands & where to find them

Goat feta cheese was the last thing I gave up before going vegan more than two decades ago, but the memory of its salty and slightly pungent taste still seems to be intact. And I think that Violife® Just Like Feta has really nailed the flavor (the texture is creamy) and Follow Your Heart® Feta Crumbles has the texture down (as its name suggests).

Good Planet Foods® Greek-Style Feta [store locator] is a brand I haven’t tried yet, and perhaps others will come on the scene. I find Violife [store locator] and Follow Your Heart [store locator] products in the refrigerated natural foods section of my local supermarket as well as in the natural foods store and hopefully you will, too.

Or, make your own feta: If you’re a DIY kind of person or simply can’t get your hands on readymade vegan feta, you can also make a reasonable facsimile with tofu, coming up next!

Make your own Tofu “Feta”

While this isn’t quite as OMG as packaged vegan feta, it’s still quite good! You need:

• 7 to 8 ounces extra-firm (about half of a tub)
  or super-firm tofu (about half half of the package )
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

1  If you have a tofu press, use it ahead of time if you’re using extra-firm tofu; even an hour will do nicely. Otherwise, slice the tofu into 4 slabs crosswise. Blot between layers of paper towel or clean tea towels until you get out as much moisture as you can. You need not press or blot super-firm tofu, which makes it ideal for this preparation. Likewise, cut it into 4 slabs.

2  Cut the slabs into 1/4 inch dice. Place in a shallow container and toss with the lemon juice and oil. Let stand for 30 minutes to an hour. Drain off any liquid that may form, then use as directed in the recipe.

Explore more …

• Potato Salad with Red Beans & Artichokes
• Marinated Artichoke Hearts with Mushrooms & Asparagus
• Potato and Fennel Salad with Artichoke Hearts
• Spinach & Artichoke Salad
• Savory and delicious olive recipes

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Yield: 4

Greek Salad with Artichokes, Chickpeas, and Vegan Feta

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Here’s a lively Greek salad with artichokes and chickpeas, featuring a pop of flavor from vegan feta. You can buy fantastic vegan feta readymade, or make your own with tofu.

Prep Time 15 minutes

Additional Time 5 minutes

Total Time 20 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 small head romaine or other lettuce, torn or cut into shreds (or a few big handful of mixed baby greens)
• 1/2 cup grape or cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1/2 cup pitted black olives (halved if you’d like, or keep whole)
• 1 cup chickpeas
• 1 cup artichoke hearts (marinated or not)
• 1 red or orange bell pepper, cut into thin slices
• A small chunk of red onion, cut into thin slivers
• 1/3 cup bottled or homemade Basic Vinaigrette (see link in Notes), more or less as desired
• Juice of 1/2 fresh lemon (or 2 tablespoons lemon juice, or more, to taste)
• Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
• 4 ounces packaged vegan feta, cut into small dice, or homemade tofu feta (see link in Notes)

Instructions

1. Combine all the ingredients except the feta in a mixing bowl. Stir well and let stand for 5 minutes or so to allow the flavors to blend.
2. Taste to see if you’d like to add more dressing or lemon juice, but don’t drench the salad. You can always pass them around. 
3. Add the feta and toss again, or pass it around to top individual portions.

Notes

Here are links to:

• Basic Vinaigrette
• Tofu Feta is within this recipe you'll be using half of it for this salad)

See lots more delectable, veggie-filled salads & sides.