Balila, warm chickpea salad, a vegetarian recipe

Name: Balila, warm chickpea salad
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 70 min
Total time: 85 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: Lebanon
Ingredients: 250 g dried chickpeas, soaked overnight (or 550 g cooked chickpeas); ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda; 3 garlic cloves; 1 tsp salt; 60 ml lemon juice (about 1½ lemons); 60 ml olive oil, plus more to serve; 1½ tsp ground cumin, plus more to serve; 10 g flat-leaf parsley, chopped; 30 g pine nuts (optional); Onion wedges, mint leaves and pickles, to serve

Balila, warm chickpea salad

Local name: بليلة

Also written: hummus balila

Warm chickpea salad, the chickpeas barely crushed, with pounded garlic, lemon, olive oil and cumin, served in Lebanon as part of a morning or midday mezze.

Published on 26 September 2026

VeganGluten-free#chickpeas#salad#cumin#mezze#breakfast

Method

Drain the chickpeas, cover them generously with cold water, add the bicarbonate of soda and bring to the boil. Simmer for about 1 hour, skimming off the foam and loose skins, until they crush with no effort between two fingers.
Meanwhile, pound the garlic with the salt in a mortar to a paste, then loosen it with the lemon juice.
Drain the chickpeas, keeping 200 ml of their cooking water. Return them to the pan with 100 ml of that water and the cumin, and warm through for 2 to 3 minutes.
Off the heat, add the garlic and lemon and the olive oil. Roughly crush about a third of the chickpeas with a fork, stopping well short of a purée, and loosen with a little cooking water if it looks dry.
Toast the pine nuts in a dry pan for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring.
Serve warm in shallow bowls, drizzled with olive oil and scattered with cumin, parsley and pine nuts, with the onion, mint, pickles and, if you are not avoiding gluten, some flatbread on the side.

In Lebanon balila is served hot or warm, as part of a breakfast or lunch mezze, and it turns up in Syria, Jordan, Palestine and as far as the Hejaz. The name is thought to come from the Arabic verb balla, to wet. Crush only part of them: the dish keeps most of its chickpeas whole and is not hummus.

The techniques this recipe uses

Drain and rinse
Canning liquid clouds a sauce and salts it blind: rinse until the water runs clear.

Frequently asked questions

Can balila be eaten cold, as a salad?

In Lebanon it is served hot or warm. Cold, it holds up well as a chickpea salad, but the olive oil sets and the garlic takes over. Take it out of the fridge half an hour before serving and wake it up with a squeeze of lemon and a trickle of oil.

Can I use tinned chickpeas?

Yes. Rinse them, simmer them for 10 minutes in lightly salted water to soften them, and keep that water in place of the cooking liquid. They will stay a little firmer than chickpeas cooked at home with bicarbonate of soda, and will not crush as easily.

Is it the same dish as Egyptian balila?

No. In Egypt the same name belongs to a sweet dish of whole wheat grains in hot milk, with nuts and raisins. Chickpea balila, savoury and sour, is the one from the Levant and the Hejaz.

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Balila, warm chickpea salad

Method

The techniques this recipe uses

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Nutrition per serving

Frequently asked questions

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