Recipe: Smashed Chickpea Salad (Vegan, Gluten Free)

 

This is another one of those recipes that's been buried on my blog among the packed lunches, and I wanted to give it a dedicated post.

When I came up with this, I'd tried a lot of different chickpea salad sandwiches in what seemed like a futile quest to fulfill my craving for something like the tuna salad I remembered. I realized somewhere along the way that one of the reasons it wasn't working for me was that none of the recipes I'd found were made the way I, personally, used to make tuna salad. I never put mustard or peppers in my tuna salad, but I did put in dill pickle relish. I often added finely chopped or shredded carrots into it, and sometimes shredded apples. (Apples don't appear here but you could definitely shred some apple into this if you wanted! It'll give it much more of a chicken salad flavor.)

I like to make a sandwich from this salad on toast with a bit of vegan mayo, sliced tomatoes, and some sort of greens (here, spring mix), but it's also great on crackers or as a dip for celery sticks.

This may have been the first vegan recipe I'd made by trusting my own palate and just plunging forth, and on that basis it has a lot of meaning to me--it was one of the ways I began to feel like a confident vegan who could satisfy my needs (emotional and otherwise).

Smashed Chickpea "Tuna" Salad
Serves: 1-2

3/4 cup canned chickpeas, drained and rinsed (save the aquafaba for other uses)
1/3 of a medium carrot, very finely chopped
1/3 of a celery stalk, very finely chopped
2 tablespoons finely chopped red onion
1/4 teaspoon celery seed
1/4 teaspoon kelp granules (optional, but this does give it more of a seafood flavor)
1 teaspoon dried parsley
2-3 tablespoons dill pickle relish
3 tablespoons vegan mayo
Salt and pepper to taste

Smash the chickpeas in a bowl with a fork. Don't puree them, but make sure each chickpea is at least smashed in half, while also making sure the salad still has texture.

Add all the other ingredients to the bowl. Mix well. Taste and adjust seasonings.