Fast to whip up? ✅ Flavorful and filling? ✅ Extremely-customizable? ✅ Superb for meal-prep? ✅ Imagine it or not, this Chickpea Salad Sandwich is all this and extra.

Pile it excessive on toasted bread and luxuriate in a lunch of completely balanced bites—chunky chickpeas and crunchy veggies in creamy vegan mayo with a zingy brightness courtesy of lemon, mustard, and briny capers, plus loads of dill for herby freshness.

Desk of Contents:
1. Ingredient notes
2. Step-by-step directions
3. Suggestions for making this recipe
4. Continuously Requested Questions
5. Recipe card with notes

If at first you don’t succeed…return to the classics 

My preliminary imaginative and prescient for this recipe concerned a tahini-yogurt sauce coating the chickpeas, just like what I exploit in my (mind-blowingly good) vegan potato salad. However chickpeas ≠ boiled potatoes, and even with the very best creamy, high-fat coconut yogurt…properly, it was good, but it surely tasted too wholesome (you realize what I imply).

So I pivoted to the traditional stuff, vegan mayo, and it was an immediately higher sandwich. Creamy, indulgent, nostalgic. All of the issues. 

I assume a part of being a recipe developer is understanding when not to reinvent the wheel, as a result of the wheel (vegan mayo) makes for a fairly bangin’ chickpea salad.

So use vegan mayo and make the creamy-crunchy, luscious-and-zippy chickpea salad you deserve, after which craft the sandwich of your desires. 

Ingredient notes

Chickpeas

Common ol’ fuss-free canned chickpeas do the trick fantastically right here. Chickpeas are wealthy in protein and fiber, which makes them a brilliant satiating successful mixture. 

Vegan mayo

As I discussed earlier, I attempted a couple of different components in my quest to make this chickpea salad indulgently creamy however, in the end, none did the job in addition to vegan mayo. 

The recipe features a vary within the quantity of mayo, so add in keeping with your required creaminess—½ cup (112g) for a creamier, richer mouthfeel, ⅓ cup (75g) for a lighter vibe.

Favourite manufacturers: My faves are Simply Mayo and Comply with Your Coronary heart Vegenaise, however I additionally like Sir Kensington’s Vegan Mayo.

Substitute: In the event you hate vegan mayo for no matter purpose, I’ve included directions for whipping up a substitute within the FAQs. It’s good, however inferior to the unique!

The tangy trio: capers, lemon, Dijon mustard

These three work their brightening magic on this chickpea salad—they lower by means of the richness of the mayo and punch issues up with some severe zing.

Aromatics & veggies

All the pieces on this class is chosen for a particular function:

• Pink onion offers a refined sharpness that contrasts fantastically with the creamy consistency;
• Dill (a traditional part in chickpea salads) brings a herbaceous freshness;
• Celery (optionally available) provides a refreshing crunch;
• And garlic due to course, and I gained’t be explaining myself additional.

That mentioned, you will have room to riff! Take a look at the Suggestions part for personalization concepts. 

Step-by-step directions

Add the onion, celery (if utilizing), dill, and capers to a meals processor and pulse till every thing is finely chopped.

Add the chickpeas and pulse till they’re crumbled into small items (however not pureed).

Switch the combination to a big bowl and fold within the dill pickle relish, garlic, lemon zest, lemon juice, mustard, black pepper, kosher salt, and mayo.

Combine properly and style, adjusting seasoning and including extra lemon juice or mustard as desired.

Scoop chickpea salad onto toasted bread, high with sandwich fixings and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Function an open-faced sandwich, or high with one other slice of bread and slice in half. 

Suggestions for making this recipe

My ultimate sandwich expertise

Sandwich-making is an intensely private endeavor. However if you wish to be my sandwich twin, comply with these steps:

1. Use good-quality bread—not squishy sandwich bread with 28 completely different components that can disintegrate as quickly as you scoop a beneficiant quantity of filling on it.
2. Toast your bread for somewhat textural distinction. A toaster or toaster oven will do, however for a significantly indulgent sandwich, toast your bread in a frying pan with a little bit of olive oil. 
3. Rub that toasted bread whereas nonetheless heat with a halved garlic clove. It offers instantaneous garlic bread vibes (a number of the greatest vibes on the market, for my part).
4. High with the fixings that make your coronary heart sing! 

Customization choices: the filling

Add some warmth: Add ½ of a jalapeño pepper or serrano pepper. Roughly chop it up and add it to the meals processor once you add the onions and dill. Or fold in a couple of teaspoons of Calabrian chili paste once you add the mayo.

Veggie energy: Add extra veggies by dicing up a small pink or yellow pepper and including it together with the pink onion. Or add a pair Persian cucumbers. If including extra veg, chances are you’ll want so as to add extra salt to style, and probably extra lemon juice.

Olive this sandwich: Some smashed and chopped castelvetrano olives (or different delicate inexperienced olives) could be enjoyable right here!

Identical vibes, completely different salad: In search of a fake tuna-style chickpea salad sandwich? Strive my Vegan Tuna Salad, which tastes shockingly just like tuna salad.

Customization choices: the sandwich fixings

Wanna transfer past the usual lettuce and tomato fixings? Permission enthusiastically granted. Strive:

• Thinly-sliced pink onion + cucumbers + capers + everything-but-the-bagel seasoning
• Thinly-sliced radishes and carrots, shortly pickled in lemon juice, salt, and a little bit of sugar
• Pickles. That’s the entire thought. Heaps. Of. Pickles. Or, pickles and pickled jalapeños. 

Bonus thought: Strive serving this as an open-faced sandwich! And when you’re at it, high with broccoli sprouts or microgreens, cucumber ribbons, avocado, and a drizzle of additional virgin olive oil for #californiavibes

Gluten free? In the event you can’t discover gluten-free bread you want, use this filling in a wrap or flip these into lettuce cups!

Continuously Requested Questions

Did this chickpea salad stage up your lunchtime recreation? Go away a score and assessment under and inform me all about it—I’d love to listen to how you customised your sandwich!

Large Vegan Taste

Methods and 150 recipes to grasp vegan cooking.

This low-effort, high-impact chickpea salad sandwich is the antidote to your unhappy desk lunch! Chickpeas are mashed up and coated in a zingy, creamy dressing with bites of crisp veggies for textural enjoyable. Sandwich a scoop between toasted, garlic-rubbed bread, or make it your personal!

• ▢ ½ heaping cup (90g) pink onion, roughly chopped (about ½ small onion)
• ▢ ½ heaping cup (90g) celery, roughly chopped (optionally available, see Notice 1)
• ▢ ½ cup (15g) contemporary dill, tightly packed (no powerful stems)
• ▢ 2 tablespoons (25g) capers, drained
• ▢ 2 (15-ounce / 425g) cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• ▢ 2 tablespoons (36g) dill pickle relish (or 2 dill pickles, roughly chopped)
• ▢ 1 fats clove garlic, minced, grated, or crushed with a press
• ▢ 1 small lemon, zested and juiced (see Notice 2)
• ▢ ⅓ to ½ cup (75 to 112g) vegan mayo (see Notice 3)
• ▢ 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard (or complete grain mustard)
• ▢ Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper

• In your meals processor bowl (see Notice 5), mix the onion, celery if utilizing, dill, and capers. Pulse repeatedly (don’t repeatedly mix) till the components are finely chopped.

• Add within the chickpeas and pulse once more till chickpeas are crumbled into small items however not pureed. Switch the combination to a big bowl.

• To the chickpea combination, fold within the dill pickle relish, garlic, lemon zest, 1 tablespoon (15 mL) lemon juice, mustard, black pepper to style, ½ teaspoon kosher salt, and mayo (½ cup / 112g mayo for a creamier, richer mouthfeel; ⅓ cup / 75g for a lighter vibe).

• Combine every thing properly with a spatula till well-combined and creamy. Style, including extra lemon juice, mustard, salt, or pepper as desired.

• For toasted sandwiches (my desire): Flippantly toast every slice of bread utilizing a toaster, toaster oven, broiler, or a frying pan. Whereas nonetheless heat, rub every slice of bread with the lower facet of a halved garlic clove. If desired, unfold a skinny layer of vegan butter on one slice of bread.

• Assemble the sandwiches: Scoop a beneficiant quantity of chickpea salad onto every slice of bread. High with sandwich fixings and sprinkle frivolously with a pinch of salt and pepper (if desired, frivolously drizzle the veggie toppings with additional virgin olive oil). High with the remaining slice of bread and slice in half, or function open-faced sandwiches).

1. In the event you don’t love celery, be happy to omit it or change it with the identical quantity of cucumber or pink bell pepper. Or for those who don’t have contemporary celery, you’ll be able to change it with ½ to 1 teaspoon of celery seeds.
2. The lemon zest provides a vibrant lemony taste. In the event you don’t need that, be happy to omit it or add simply half of the zest, then style and add extra as desired.
3. Use ½ cup / 112g mayo for a creamier, richer mouthfeel; ⅓ cup / 75g for a lighter vibe. Our favourite vegan mayo manufacturers are Simply Mayo and Comply with Your Coronary heart Vegenaise; we additionally like Sir Kensington’s vegan mayo. In the event you want a mayo-free various, change the mayo with: 1/4 cup (56g) well-stirred tahini, 4 oz (112g) creamy coconut yogurt, and 1 TBSP (14g) additional virgin olive oil.
4. This makes 5 to six sandwiches utilizing customary sandwich bread. If you’re utilizing bakery-style bread, you’ll doubtless get 4 bigger sandwiches.
5. In the event you don’t need to use your meals processor: (1) finely chop the onion, celery, dill, and capers; (2) mash the chickpeas in a big bowl with a sturdy fork or potato masher till chunky; (3) combine within the chopped veggies/herbs and the dressing components.

---