Cranberry Walnut Chickpea Salad Sandwich

Delicious but with a sweet flair that you'll fall in love with! This will hit the spot and satisfy your craving for a chunky, sweet, peppery, crunchy style sandwich. Full of texture and flavor, it's a hearty salad that will comfort you and leave you feeling completely satisfied. This can be served as a traditional or open faced sandwich. Or simply serve on a bed of lettuce and skip the bread. I use regular mayo when I don't have vegan. From The Simple Veganista.

• Ready In: 30 mins
• Yields: 3-4

Ingredients

• 3  cups  cooked garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed (or 2 15 oz. cans)
• 1  cup celery, diced
• 1⁄2 cup dried cranberries (chopped fresh would be great too)
• 1⁄2 cup walnuts, roughly chopped (or pecans)
• 1⁄2 cup scallion, thinly sliced, white & green parts (green onions)
•  sea salt, to taste
•  fresh ground pepper, to taste (I used about 1/2 teaspoon each)

• Dressing

• 6  tablespoons tahini (1/3 cup, or vegan mayo)
• 4  tablespoons cider vinegar (1/4 cup- or champagne, white wine vinegar)
• 2  tablespoons water (only needed if using tahini)
• 2  teaspoons pure maple syrup

• To serve

•  lettuce, of choice
•  bread, of choice

Directions

1. Start by mixing your dressing. In a small bowl combine tahini/mayo, vinegar, water and maple syrup. Set aside so the flavors come together. This can be made a day or two ahead and stored in the refrigerator until ready to use. Add a tad more water, or vinegar if your a vinegar lover, to thin out dressing as desired. If using vegan mayo, you may like to add 2 more tablespoons.
2. In a medium to large bowl, add your garbanzo beans and roughly mash with a strong fork or potato masher. Add in celery, cranberries, nuts, scallions, salt, pepper and dressing, mix well. Serve at room temp or let chill in the refrigerator for an hour before serving.
3. Serve on your favorite bread as a closed or open faced sandwich, or on a bed of leafy greens. You may even opt to simply enjoy the salad as is.
4. Notes:
5. Add extra of anything you like, and vice versa if your not keen on an ingredient use less or omit!
6. Change up the walnuts, using pecans, almonds, sunflower seeds, etc. If using sunflower seeds, use half the amount called for.
7. For the dressing, if using vegan mayo, adjust accordingly adding more mayo as needed, maybe 1/2 cup instead of 1/3. I do recommend trying this reicpe with tahini -- it is seriously so good that you would never know and it is much better/cleaner for you than the store bought mayos!
8. Enjoy!