This Vegan Chickpea Tuna Salad Recipe is a close vegan replacement to actual tuna salad. It’s tangy, thick and makes a mean chickpea tuna salad sandwich.
Vegan Chickpea Tuna Salad Recipe
I give this vegan chickpea tuna salad recipe an 8/10 in the “fooling someone” category and a 9.5/10 on the flavor matching. It tastes ridiculously close to the real thing.
My husband who can reach for a real tuna fish salad sandwich whenever he’d like to says it’s a 10/10 on flavor matching. So you be the judge! I just wanted to be super honest that it’s really, really close. But just a tiny bit different from the real thing.
Either way it will TOTALLY take care of your cravings. 100%. And it’s totally vegan and actually not half bad for you!
Tips for making this Vegan Chickpea Tuna Salad Recipe:
- You can skip the bell pepper and celery without it affecting the flavor too much, those are there mainly for the crunch.
- Don’t skip the red onion, it’s very important to making a convincing “tuna salad” flavor.
- If making this a day or more ahead, add a little more mayo the day of serving just to mellow out the flavors a bit since the flavors intensify as the salad sits.
The skin separating from the chickpeas is what gives it a texture similar to an actual tuna fish salad. The hand mashing takes a few minutes, but is definitely worth the effort to mash them well so you get the right texture.
Chickpea Tuna Salad
Ingredients
- 2 15 oz. Cans Chickpeas
- 1/4 cup Chickpea Liquid saved from can
- 1/2 Orange or Red Bell Pepper thinly diced
- 1 Individual Stalk Celery thinly diced
- 1/4 cup Red Onion chopped
- 2 tbsp. Dill Pickle Juice
- 3 tbsp. Lemon Juice fresh squeezed
- 1/4 cup Vegan Mayo
- 1 tsp. Spicy Brown Mustard
- 1/2 tsp. Dill Weed
- Salt and Pepper to taste
- Lettuce of choice for serving, optional
- Sandwich Bread for serving, optional
- Sliced Tomato for serving, optional
Instructions
- Drain chickpeas. Save 1/4 Cup liquid from can. Add chickpeas and liquid to a large bowl.
- Mash with a potato masher, pressing firmly and using a rocking motion to mash chickpeas. Then use a fork to mash chickpeas more finely.Tip: This step can take about 8 minutes to get a good mash. It's worth taking the extra time to make sure the chickpeas are mashed well. The skins separating from the mashed chickpeas is what gives it a "tuna fish" type of texture.
- Once mashed, add all other ingredients and mix well. Adjust salt and pepper to taste.
- Optional: Lightly toast bread. Place enough lettuce to cover a slice of bread. Smear a portion of chickpea tuna salad over lettuce. Top with bread.
Notes
Nutrition
Hi, this definitely sounds worth trying – and that’s really saying something, because I’m not a big fan of chickpeas!
But how come I can’t pin this?
Keep up the good work! :o)
Amanda