Chickpea Tunalike Salad

Sharon123's Note:

Eat as is, spread on whole grain bread, stuff into a tomato, lettuce leaves, or in pita pockets along with lettuce and diced fresh tomatoes. Adapted fromVegan Vittles cookbook by Jo Stepaniak and the people of the Farm Sancuary. Update:From a reviewers suggestion, I have addeed crushed toasted nori as an option-it gives it a nice from the sea flavor!

• Total Time: 10 mins
• Prep Time: 10 mins
• Cook Time: 0 mins

Ingredients:

Yield: 2

• 1 (15 ounce) can chickpeas, drained (about 1 3/4 cups)
• 1/2 cup finely diced celery (I use the food processor)
• 1/4 cup finely diced sweet onion (or green onion)
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 2 -3 tablespoons minced fresh parsley (sometimes I add a little fresh chopped dill)
• 1 tablespoon vegan mayonnaise (or regular or if you wish to omit mayonnaise add 1 tbls. extra virgin olive oil)
• 2 teaspoons brown mustard
• 2 teaspoons well drained pickle relish (sweet or dill-your choice)
• 1/4 teaspoon paprika (I used smoked paprika)
• crushed toasted nori (about 1/8-1/4 cup-optional)
• salt
• pepper

Directions:

1. Coarsely chop the beans in a food processor, or mash well with a fork.
2. Stir in the celery, lemon juice, onion, parsley, mayonnaise(or olive oil), relish, mustard, paprika, and salt and pepper to taste. Add in crushed toasted nori sheets if using. Mix well.
3. Chill thoroughly before serving.
4. Stored in a covered container in the fridge, the salad will keep for up to 1 week.
5. Enjoy!
6. Note: Sometimes I add finely chopped green bell pepper, and have even added slightly mashed peas to this!

Reviews

[Valeria]

Five stars for how easy and quick it is to prepare, three stars for taste. I am allergic to seaweed, so I couldn't add that to the dish. The dressing was good, but the chickpeas alone were not enough to balance it out. Perhaps had I gone with olive oil instead of mayo it would have been lighter. It is an easy and tasty dish to take to a picnic, but not something I would revisit. I'd probably choose a bean salad over this.

[ranch-girl]

This made a fabulous lunch. Much better than tuna salad in my opinion. I actually didn't chop the beans as I was just eating it from a bowl. The only change I made was to add some finely chopped red pepper - and I didn't add the nori. It was attractive as well as delicious. Made for March 2009 Vegetarian Swap.

[Dreamer in Ontario]

This is really tasty. I used a couple of shallots for the onion, real mayonnaise and some diced sandwich pickle for the relish. I also used dried chickpeas that were cooked with some onion, garlic and bay leaves rather than canned chickpeas. The flavour is surprisingly tuna-like. Thanks for sharing.