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Chickpea Tuna Salad – The perfect vegan recipe that uses chickpeas, vegan mayo, celery, and spices for additional flavor. Great on sandwiches or salads!
This week I decided to clean out my pantry.
It was becoming a bit of a mess and I wasn’t able to find anything in there. Boxes of pasta covered the can food, snacks were thrown around a bit of everywhere, and it looked like a hurricane of food had taken place in there.
Yes…I was embarrassed that I had let it get that way.
No…I did not take any pictures of the mess to show you.
Anyway while sorting through the mess I was able to organize and toss anything that had expired into the trash. Afterwards, I felt a real sense of accomplishment as I stood in the doorway admiring my awesome pantry organization skills. It made me think that I should clean and organize things more often. I was also able to find several cans of chickpeas tucked away on a bottom shelf and pushed back into the back corner. Poor little cans of neglected chickpeas. I will have to make use of you in a recipe today of chickpea ‘tuna’ salad.
Have you ever heard of it? Well, it is kinda like tuna salad without the tuna and instead, the chickpeas are used in place of the tuna. It is the perfect substitute for tuna salad for those that are looking to eat more plant-based and is an excellent source of protein and fiber.
Plus this recipe only requires the use of a food processor or large bowl, fork, and arm muscle if you don’t have one.
Chickpea ‘Tuna’ Salad
Ingredients
- 1 can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- 1/3 cup vegan mayo
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1/4 cup red onion, chopped
- 1/3 cup celery, chopped
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Instructions
- Place all of the ingredients into a food processor and pulse until incorporated.
- You may have to stop the food processor a few times to scrape down the sides to make sure everything is combined, but you want to be careful not to over mix. Pulse until fully combined but the texture is still chunky similar to tuna salad.
- Serve spread evenly on a slice of toast, topped with spinach (or any green you prefer), and sliced tomato.
Nutrition
Got any comments, questions, or other ideas for this Chickpea Tuna Salad? Share them in the comments below!
10 Comments
Tamara
July 7, 2016 at 12:51 PMI am always looking for good lunch options and this is an awesome one. What’s in our pantry? Chickpeas and tuna. And applesauce, but I’ll keep that on the side..
admin
July 11, 2016 at 11:52 AMLOL!! I love it!! We both seem to keep spare cans of chickpeas of hand in our pantry 🙂
Akaleistar
July 7, 2016 at 9:43 PMI’m not wild about tuna salad, but I like chickpeas, and this looks like a nice alternative 🙂
admin
July 11, 2016 at 11:51 AMThank you! I was not a big fan of tuna salad either.
Steve
July 8, 2016 at 2:01 PMI love this!
admin
July 11, 2016 at 11:51 AMThank you Steve!
Sonya
July 13, 2016 at 12:25 PMI’ve made a faux tuna salad with chickpeas a few times. The first time I made it my husband missed the fact that I said it was “faux” tuna salad and wanted to know what kind of tuna I had used. He was surprised that it was made from chickpeas. The next time I just made some for myself 🙂
admin
July 18, 2016 at 4:50 PMThat is too funny!! I could see how if you didn’t know it was made with chickpeas it would be thought of as some funky tuna…HA!
Chantal
December 8, 2020 at 10:01 AMHello fellow Floridian! This is a wonderful recipe for any time of the year down here. I started adding chick peas so it would be healthier, I really like your version. Thank you : )
LaKita
December 8, 2020 at 12:22 PMHi Chantal! Thank you so much! This is a nice recipe to use chickpeas 🙂