Tunisian Spiced Bean and Tofu Salad

This salad makes my belly so happy. I often find myself having little salad snacks throughout the day, and each time I stop for a bite I think, “gosh, this is so good.” The Harissa and Tunisian seasoning make this salad warming and perfect for blustery days, even when you eat it straight from the fridge. It has tons of healthy protein, boat loads of real fiber, delicious roasted veggies and herbs, and healthy fats. Its spices are anti-inflammatory and its vegan! But none of these would matter if it wasn’t easy to make and, absolutely delicious. As an extra bonus, it ages well in the fridge because the tofu gets more and more flavor and it’s even better on day three than it is on day one.

Tunisian Spiced Bean Salad the perfect salad for lunch or for dinner maybe paired with a simple white fish, or a large hunk of bread. This salad is adapted from Hetti McKinnon’s new book Linger.  As I read her recipe, I knew that I would make some changes, but the simple idea behind the salad would not exist without McKinnon’s recipe. I’ve adjusted the ratios, added more protein, and added a greater diversity of textures and spices, and played with the herbs.

Notes

Note about Harissa paste

I love how prevalent pepper pastes and sauces are these days. The most widely available North African version is harissa paste. Harissa is Tunisian and is made with ground up reconstituted dried peppers and can have a slight heat or be really spicy. There are different brands that you can buy, but Mina is the most common. This brand, doesn’t have the spice profile of many harissas. It lacks the cumin, coriander, and caraway seeds that are common. But, since it’s the most available brand, it’s what I used to make this Tunisian spiced salad. To compensate, I added some caraway seeds to the original recipe (I was out of coriander or I would have added a pinch of ground coriander as well). If you’re using a different brand of harissa, you may not need to add ground caraway, cumin, or coriander.

Note about boiling tofu

I am a fairly recent convert to boiling tofu (thanks Ari!). Although the changes are subtle, when you boil the tofu it’s going to have a texture almost like cheese and will pickup the marinade that much better. If you want the best texture and taste for your tofu, I cannot recommend it highly enough. Of course if you want less mess and you like the texture of your tofu, you can absolutely skip this step.

Key Ingredients

onion

small tomatoes

celery

tofu

canned lentils

canned chickpeas

Harissa paste

fresh herbs

ground cumin and turmeric

lemon juice

Tunisian Spiced Bean and Tofu Salad– Recipe

Time 30 minutes. Serves 5-6 as a main, 8 as a side. Adapted from Hetti McKinnon’s “Spiced Lentil and Chickpea salad” (Linger, 2025)

Ingredients

• 1 large onion
• 12 ounces cherry tomatoes (the best you can find)
• 3 medium stalks of celery
• 3-5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• ¾ teaspoon ground turmeric
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• ¼ teaspoon crushed caraway seeds (optional)
• 1 slightly heaped tablespoon harissa paste
• Sea salt
• Fresh pepper
• 7 ounces (half a package) of extra firm or super firm tofu
• 1 can chickpeas (15.5 ounces)
• 1 can lentils (15.5 ounces)
• 1 handful of parsley
• 1 handful of cilantro (mint, dill, basil, would all also work)
• Juice of 1 medium-large lemon
• ½ cup thin almonds toasted (optional)

Step One

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and set a medium sized pot of salted water (1-2 teaspoons of salt) over high heat. Oil a sheet pan with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and set aside.

Step Two

Cut onion in half and then cut it into 1/8 inch slivers. Halve cherry tomatoes, and cut 2.5 stalks of celery into ¼ inch pieces (set aside the last ½ celery stalk). Add veggies to a large bowl as you cut them. Pour 2 tablespoons of olive oil over top the veggies, sprinkle cumin, turmeric, crushed caraway seeds, 1 teaspoon sea salt, and a few grinds of pepper, and add Harissa paste over top. Mix veggies, spices, harissa and oil together, then pour out over the greased sheet pan. (Keep the bowl on hand for the next step). Roast veggies for 18-25 minutes, or until onions and celery become soft and tomatoes look toasty and start to lose their skin.

Step Three

While the veggies roast, cut tofu into cubes that are slightly larger than a chickpea. Add tofu cubes to boiling salted water and gently boil tofu for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, strain tofu and put in the medium bowl. Drain and rinse chickpeas and lentils and add to the bowl with the tofu. Chop remaining half stick of celery into ¼ inch pieces and add to bowl with beans and tofu.

Step Four

Once veggies have roasted remove them from the oven and scrap the veggies along with any accumulated juices into the bowl with the tofu and beans. Mix well to combine. Squeeze the juice of half a lemon over top and mix again, then add in chopped herbs and sliced almonds. Sample and adjust seasoning as necessary, and add juice of other half a lemon and another tablespoon of olive oil if desired.

Salad can be served warm, at room temperature, or refrigerated and served cold. It will keep in the fridge for about 4 days.