This is an amazing vegan substitute for chicken salad. I usually serve it on buns, as a “chicken” salad sandwich, with some lettuce, sliced tomato, mustard, vegan mayo, whatever else your heart desires in a sandwich. It can be served as a dip or spread with whole grain crackers or chips. I have also served it over a bed of spinach, one of my personal favorites .The hardest part of this whole process is the smashing of the chickpeas. Yes, they have to be smashed to give just the right texture. If you toss them in your food processor it will blend them up too much.
I try to keep the whole rinsed chickpeas separate in my bowl from the ones I’ve already smashed. In this photo I doubled the recipe. There is one can of chickpeas that have been smashed on the right side and my second can rinsed, drained and ready to be smashed is on the left side.
This is what your bowl looks like once you have gone through and smashed each and every chickpea. I leave the skins on my chickpeas, as of yet I have never peeled a chickpea.
This is the finished “chicken” salad once you add the rest of the ingredients.
Chicken Salad
A lite chicken salad substitute, with a crisp celery crunch. We have eaten this on 100% whole grain buns, as a dip with Marys crackers, or as a salad topping.
Ingredients
- 1 can chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
- 2 Tbsp. tahini
- 1 1/2 Tbsp Dijon mustard
- 1 Tbsp maple syrup
- 1 medium red onion, diced
- 2 stalks of celery, chopped
- 1/4 cup of dill pickles, chopped
- sprinkling of hemp seeds
- pepper to taste
- sea salt, optional
Directions
- Drain and rinse chickpeas
- In a medium bowl mash chickpeas with a fork or potato masher
- Add tahini, mustard, maple syrup, red onion, celery, pickles, hemp seeds, pepper and optional salt. Stir until well mixed
- Eat as desired, as a sandwich, as a dip, or as a salad topper
theheartie.kitchen
The Heartie Kitchen 