Although I could never betray my polish meat eating roots, I really do enjoy vegetarian food. This recipe is a vegetarian version of chicken or tuna salad. It can be easily made vegan too, but I’m not giving up mayo. Ever.
Before you get all skeptical hippo eyes on me, my meat loving husband had this salad and said it was the best vegetarian replacement he’s ever had. I don’t know how many he’s tried but hey, it’s something!
So why should you try this recipe? It’s really easy to make with no cooking required…just chopping and mixing…and opening a can of whoopass (Ola 3:16), I mean, chickpeas. I took it for lunch to work and it was delicious and kept well.
Which takes me to my next point, it doesn’t stink like a whore house in the summer. One of my many pet peeves is when someone brings tuna to work. Do you have any self awareness as to how stinky that is!? I had a coworker that always brought it and would mix it with mayo…great idea Andrea,…add rotten eggs smell to that stankshow of a lunch.
Finally, it keeps longer (I would assume) than tuna or chicken so you can make a big batch and enjoy it as a sandwich topping, in a wrap or just on its own. I made a huge batch of it and forgot about it part way through the week and then ate it a week later and it was tasty. No diarrhea either!
Chickpea Salad Sandwich
1 can of chickpeas
2 carrots
2 stalks of celery
1 green onion
1 pickle
Basil leaves
½ cup mayo
1 Tbs Dijon
1 tsp mustard
½ tsp celery salt
½ tsp pepper
Open and drain the can of chickpeas. Put them in a bowl and mash them with a fork. You want some mashed up bits but some bigger pieces. This isn’t baby food. You can chew.
Shred the carrots or use the lazy kind that’s already shredded from the store. If you do, then use about ½ a cup. Chop the celery, green onion and pickle. Chop up some basil leaves. If you don’t have basil, you can add dill (or both). Add it all to the mashed chickpea bowl.
In a smaller bowl, add in the mayo, the mustards, celery salt and pepper. In addition to the Dijon, I added stadium mustard because it has a bit of zip to it, but use whatever you want. I just don’t like yellow mustard. It’s like the kindergarden of mustard. If you don’t have celery salt, regular salt is fine. I just like that added flavour so maybe look into it. I get it at Bulk Barn. Mix all this up and stir it into the veggie bowl.
The recipe is flexible so if you really like an ingredient, you can add more of it. I might add in a second pickle because hey, I’m Polish. We love pickles! I also would’ve added a diced jalapeno but I didn’t have one. Have you noticed that most stores don’t sell loose jalapenos anymore?. What am I supposed to do with a 12 pack!?
I enjoyed eating this as a sandwich, so I spread hummus on some rye bread, added some spinach and topped it with the salad. My husband likes to toast his bread and drizzle on hot sauce. You could even do those lettuce cups if this isn’t enough veg for you.
**my husband wanted a writing credit because he told me to add the Ola 3:16 and write stankshow instead of stinkshow.**
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Looks delicious Ola!