Vegan ‘Chicken’ Salad
The chickpea strikes again, making for another great salad that will knock your socks off! This vegan ‘chicken’ salad is delicious as a sandwich filler, topped on a bed of leafy greens or make into lettuce wraps. Any way you serve this healthy salad is delicious!
- Prep Time: 15 min
- Total Time: 15 min
- Yield: Serves 6
- Category: Entree, Salad
- Method: mash, mix
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegan
Ingredients
- 3 cups cooked or 2 cans (15 oz) chickpeas (garbanzo beans), drained and rinsed
- 1 cup celery, diced
- 1/2 cup organic dried cranberries (chopped fresh would be great too)
- 1/2 cup walnuts or pecans, roughly chopped
- 1/2 cup scallions (green onions), thinly sliced, white & green parts
- mineral salt & freshly ground pepper, to taste (I used about 1/2 teaspoon each)
Dressing
- 6 tablespoons (1/3 cup) tahini or vegan mayo
- 4 tablespoons (1/4 cup) champagne, white wine or cider vinegar (I used Orange Muscat Champagne Vinegar)
- 2 tablespoons water (as needed if using tahini)
- 1 tablespoon pure maple syrup
To serve
- leafy lettuce of choice
- bread of choice
Instructions
Dressing: 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 you’re a vinegar lover, to thin out dressing as desired. If using vegan mayo, you may like to add 2 more tablespoons.
Mash chickpeas: In a medium to large bowl, add your garbanzo beans and roughly mash with a strong fork or potato masher. Mash at least 3/4 of the chickpeas so it binds well.
Assemble: 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.
Serve: 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.
Serves 6
Store: Leftovers can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 5 – 6 days, in a covered container.
Notes
Add extra of anything you like, and vice versa, if you’re not keen on an ingredient use less or omit! One particular ingredient may be the vinegar. I’m not much of a vinegar fan but I loved the orange muscat champagne vinegar and found I used quite a bit and loved it!
Change up the walnuts, using pecans, almonds, sunflower seeds, etc. If using sunflower seeds, use half the amount called for.
For the dressing, I have only made this using tahini since I do not use any kind of store bought vegan mayos. If using vegan mayo, adjust accordingly adding more mayo as needed, maybe 1/2 cup instead of 1/3. I do recommend trying this recipe 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!
Nutritional values are estimates only. See our full nutrition disclosure here.