Since going vegetarian, I don’t often miss meat. I love my new lifestyle and, other than when I see a plate of buffalo wings go by, I generally don’t even think about meat. However, what I do miss is the ease of constantly having sandwiches in the house. When I was younger, my mom always had tons of lunch meat and sliced cheeses in the fridge to make sandwiches with, it was the perfect thing to pack for lunch or make a quick snack if you were hungry or had friends over. This is a tough thing for a vegetarian to have on hand unless you buy the vegan lunch meat and that is just not my style. However, my quest for a good and healthy vegan sandwich lead to me to this Chickpea Salad recipe and it’s way better than lunch meat!
This recipe is based on my mom’s chicken salad recipe. My mom was a beast at making chicken salad and still is. When I was a kid I could eat a whole bowl of it with crackers in one sitting. Making chicken salad with chickpeas instead is an incredibly easy swap to make, so much so that I wondered how I didn’t think of it before stumbling across it on the internet. I was inspired by a recipe I saw on Lauren Conrad’s blog. I saw that she had used chickpeas instead of tuna and it clicked that I could do the same with my mom’s chicken salad!
Now, my mom’s chicken salad is more packed with veggies than most other recipes. It is also healthier because it is made with olive oil and fresh lemon instead of mayo. I also added even more veggies so it is colorful, crunchy, delicious totally vegan and packed with nutrients including protein! You can eat it with a spoon, add it to a salad or, do what I did here, and make a delicious sandwich. Ps. Stay tuned because I plan on posting a second chickpea salad recipe on here really soon that is different than this but might be even more delicious!
Until Next Time,
Jackie
Chickpea Salad Sandwiches
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
Loaded with fresh veggies, totally vegan and mayo free, this chickpea salad sandwich is the perfect healthy and delicious lunch! The salad is so good, you won't even want to make it into a sandwich!
Author: Jackie DeSana
Recipe type: Lunch, Dinner, Salad
Cuisine: Vegan, Vegetarian
Serves: 10 servings
Ingredients
- For Chickpea Salad
- 2 cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- 1 jalapeno, seeded and diced
- 1 red onion, diced
- 2 carrots, diced
- ½ apple, diced
- 4 radishes, diced
- 2 green onions, sliced
- 1 large handful kale, chopped
- 1 tbs maple syrup*
- 2 tbs mustard
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- Juice of 1 lemon (2 tbs)
- Optional Toppings For Sandwiches
- rye bread
- tomato
- avocado
- Vegenaise*
- mustard
Directions
- Drain and rinse two cans of chickpeas then pulse in a food processor until broken up into larger chunks, about 5 pulses. Please don't try to make the entire thing in a food processor! I did that once and the chickpeas became too mashed up and it was like a sauce instead of a salad. After the chickpeas are ground, place them into a large bowl.
- Add the red onion, scallions, carrots, apples, radishes, jalapeno and chopped kale in with the chickpeas and toss until the ingredients are mixed even.
- Next, make your dressing. This salad takes a lemon mustard vinaigrette that is absolutely delicious. Take a small bowl and mix the olive oil, lemon juice, dijon mustard, garlic, parsley and maple syrup. Whisk the ingredients together and add salt and pepper to taste. If the mixture is too sweet add a little more lemon juice to tone down the syrup.
- Pour the vinaigrette over the chickpea salad and toss together. This salad is particularly great because the longer it sits in the fridge the better the ingredients soak in the flavor of the dressing. Serve as a sandwich on rye bread, add it to lettuce for delicious salad or just eat with crackers!
Notes
*You can use honey or agave here as well, whichever natural sweetener you like best.
*Vegenaise is optional and can also be swapped for mayo if you're not vegan. You can also add cheese but trust me it doesn't need it!
*Vegenaise is optional and can also be swapped for mayo if you're not vegan. You can also add cheese but trust me it doesn't need it!
