A 20-Minute Easy Chickpea Salad

Are you looking for an easy chickpea salad recipe that is vegan, healthy, zero waste, delicious and quick to prepare?

In an effort to lessen our impact on climate control, one of the best choices any of us can make is to reduce our dependence on animals for food. That includes both meat and other animal-based foods like dairy. So, I’ve been experimenting with vegan recipes for our lunches during the week. I thought that this would be the best place to start making some changes.

And to be honest, it isn’t that much of a sacrifice as I’ve always liked vegan foods even though I’m not a vegan. I have a great amount of respect for vegan chiefs. Talk about creativity! I’ve had vegan foods that truly surprised me as they were not only delightful but almost indistinguishable from meat. The first one I recall is a quinoa bowl that tasted almost exactly like a spicy tuna sushi roll. And I loved it!

So keeping that in mind, I’ve finally created an easy chickpea salad recipe I feel confident to share with you. This is my version of a “mock” tuna salad sandwich and it only requires seven ingredients. But if you don’t like the taste of fish, not to worry – just omit the dulse and it’ll still taste great, just less fishy.

Since this easy chickpea salad a.k.a mock tuna tastes pretty darn close to the real deal, you can be sure it will serve up well with anything that a regular tuna salad can.

It can be served up:

• As it is
• As a sandwich filling (of course)
• With crackers or pita chips
• On a bed of leafy greens with avocado and cherry tomatoes
• And paired with fresh bell peppers, cucumbers, or pickles

How to Make a Mock Tuna Chickpea Salad

To start with you just need to mash up some cooked chickpeas. I found a potato masher very difficult to work with. A fork works better but I felt like that took too long and was way more effort than necessary. I’m all about keeping things as easy as possible so I opted to use a food processor. It doesn’t chop the chickpeas quite as thoroughly as a fork but it gets the job done and it’s much quicker. Throw in the chickpeas and let it run for a minute. Scrap the sides with a spatula and run it again. Just don’t put in any liquid! You only want to roughly chop up the chickpeas, not make hummus.

Set that aside in a bowl. Finely chop up your celery and green onions and shred the carrot. If you are using whole dried dulse, I found snipping it with shears worked much better than chopping it with a knife as the seaweed is very rubbery. Once this is done, put everything in a bowl and mix. If you let it sit in the fridge for a few hours or overnight, the fish flavor will be much stronger from the dulse. But this step is not necessary.

I’ve had this chickpea salad keep in the fridge for about 5 days so you can double (or triple) the batch and use it for lunches throughout the week.

And as this is a very basic no-tuna salad, you can modify this according to your personal tastes. I’ve added relish, paprika, lemon, dill, finely chopped sweet peppers, raisins, walnuts, apples, and capers (not all together, mind you). But really, you can do so many different variations off this recipe. Also, if you don’t like the taste of fish, just omit the dulse.

And that’s it! Easy peasy lemon squeezy!

Looking for other vegan recipes? You might want to check out my vegan queso, cheesy kale chips, and savory pumpkin hummus!

If you give this recipe a try, I’d love to see your awesome creation! Leave a comment, rate it, and don’t forget to hashtag a photo on Instagram #sustainablesauceresses!

Or if you have any questions or feedback, you are always welcome to leave me a comment below. I’d really love to hear from you!

I really hope you give this recipe a try! This easy chickpea salad has quickly become a staple in my house for lunches during the week. It’s so nice to have something that keeps in the fridge, versatile enough that it doesn’t get old, and travels well. A real lifesaver!

Did you give this recipe a try?

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Happy Cooking!