I’m still the world’s laziest lunch maker. Ever.
I’m lucky if I make it to the table to sit down like a civilized human being most days. When I’m busting my butt in the kitchen for hours each day, the last thing I want to do is chop more vegetables or do a lot of prep for lunch. So, I tend to fall back on frozen veggie burgers (I love Amy’s California burgers), hummus, salsa, and wraps because they are effortless and ready in 5 minutes. And thank goodness there is no chopping required!
I recently discovered the obvious: prep something the night before and I’ll have more variety in my lunch. I’ve talked about this little problem before (see part 1 and part 2) so as you can see old habits die hard! My problem is that I rarely think about lunch at night time, but perhaps this chickpea salad may finally change that…
I spotted a vegan “Not Tuna Salad” on the Whole Foods website and used it as my inspiration for this amazing chickpea salad wrap. While I don’t think what I came up with tastes anything like tuna salad (let’s be real, it’s chickpeas), I think it tastes even better! And this is coming from a former tuna salad addict who used to eat canned tuna for lunch all the time in university. Yes, I was that girl stacking towers of 59 cent tuna into her shopping cart like a crazy person.
So whether you never liked tuna or maybe you love tuna, add this to your lunch rotation! Pop it into a container, add a wrap and fruit, and you have yourself a well-rounded lunch…no veggie burger required.
Amy, I’ll see you on Wednesday.
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Chickpea Salad Wrap
Yield
3 servings
Prep time
Cook time
0 minutes
Total time
Eric asked me if it really tastes like tuna. “Umm…no…” I said after careful thought, “but it actually tastes better!” Who needs tuna when it tastes this good? It’s fresh, crunchy, filling, and has a great pop of dill. If you’ve had a jar of dill pickles sitting in your fridge for years, now is the time to use them.
Ingredients
- 1 (15-oz) can chickpeas (or 1.5 cups cooked chickpeas)
- 1/2 cup chopped celery
- 2 tbsp chopped red onion
- 3 tbsp chopped dill pickle (~1 pickle)
- 1 tbsp minced fresh dill
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1/2 tsp regular mustard
- 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 1/4 cup toasted sunflower seeds (or pecans/walnuts)
- salt/herbamare and pepper, to taste
Directions
- Preheat oven to 325F and toast the sunflower seeds for about 11 minutes.
- Mix everything into a bowl, mashing up the chickpeas slightly with a fork, and season with salt (I used Herbamare) and pepper, to taste. Stuff into a wrap or pita, or enjoy with crackers or rice cakes.
Nutrition Information
(click to expand)Ok, so I didn’t make this “the night before”, but I did make this at 10am on Saturday morning! Bonus points, right?
(Note: I didn’t end up using the paprika as shown in the photo)…and yes, that’s a dill pickle leaning up against the mustard. The jar of pickles has been in our fridge for a year? Amazingly, I’m not dead after ingesting it. Love pickles.
Chop, mix, and serve. Easy.
Veggies burgers certainly have their time and place in my work week, but thankfully now does this wrap! I hope you enjoy it too!
and a link to share for you today…
In case you haven’t seen it already, check out this thought-provoking NYT’s article by Mark Bittman – “We’re eating less meat. Why?” which talks about the 12% drop in US meat consumption in the last 5 years.
“We still eat way more meat than is good for us or the environment, not to mention the animals. But a 12 percent reduction in just five years is significant, and if that decline were to continue for the next five years — well, that’s something few would have imagined five years ago. It’s something only the industry could get upset about. The rest of us should celebrate. Rice and beans, anyone?” ~Bittman
Yum! I love chickpea salad – the recipe that I use mashes up the chickpeas quite a bit more – it’s good in a wrap and fabulous on fresh multigrain bread. I’ll be giving this variation a try to change things up a bit! I’m like you, lunch needs to be easy because I’m usually packing it 5 minutes after I should have left for work in the morning!
Yum!
I think that will be my lunch for the week too! I looked at the original recipe…where does one find kelp granules : ) I plan on making hummus so that will be perfect.
Thanks for the idea!
Just in time for my weekly grocery list, I am going to make these for lunch this week. Such a fan of Mark Bittman too!
Love chickpeas and I can’t wait to try this. Just discovered your blog and I love it.
I’m totally going to make that next Sunday for weekday work lunches! No pickles at home and I agree… needs pickles!
Yum! I love chickpeas and making them into “faux chicken/tuna salad” is definitely one of my favorite uses. This reminded me to have it again, it’s been too long. Your photos are amazing!!! :)
I’m curious to try this. I do enjoy tuna every once in a loooong while, and I totally know what you mean, chickpeas aren’t going to taste like tuna. But this looks good, I think it’ll taste good as it’s own thing not really trying to be something else :)
Thanks for the lunch idea…it really is the hardest meal of the day! And love the Bittman article – his “Why Cooking Solves Everything” was a true inspiration to me!
Trying this today!!!! I love how the ingredients are already in my kitchen.
Yum I make a similar recipe to this whenever I want a sandwich that isn’t PB&J. I find that if you use a pastry cutter to mash up all the chickpeas it ends up the same flakey texture as tuna. My super lazy/quick way is to mash the chickpeas, add some relish, add a little bit of nayonaise, sprinkle of black pepper, done!
oh why didnt I think of using my pastry cutter? Great idea!
I used to use Nayonaise until I got hooked on Veganaise. It’s in the refrigerated section. Tastes like real mayo only even better. Every time I taste a little Veganaise I think I’ve reached Heaven.
Love your pastry cutter idea for proper texture.
I need to make my lunches more exciting…they have gotten dullsville!!! This looks like a tasty way to shake things up!
Mark Bittman is slowly, but surely revolutionaizing the American diet. I love his articles in Cooking Light and his show, which is occassionaly on Cooking Network is the only cooking show my husband enjoys watching. Thank you for the unique recipe! I’ll have to try it in the near future.
How gorgeous is this lunch??? OMG, so healthy, fun and looks restaurant style!
I love big lunches like this, but I usually just eat a boring salad….
xxoo
This looks delish and filling! Such a good lunch idea
This is EXACTLY what I need to transport on campus with me for lunch…thanks for my Wednesday inspiration!!!
On my way to Whole Foods! Perfect idea for tomorrow’s lunch. Going to check out some out-of-the-ordinary wraps to spice things up.
Hey Angela,
Made your carrot cake breakfast cookies twice! They were amazing both times, very filling also.
They became really hard both times though – which is not a problem for me ‘coz I like to chomp. Still, are they supposed to be like that?
Is it because I switched the maple syrup for honey? I also added a teeny bit of milk to bing it to the sticky consistency you were talking of and had to extend the baking time from 15 min to 30 coz they were still a little gooey. Otherwise I followed your recipe to a T. Could you tell me where I might have gone wrong??
Thanks
Hey Varsha, I would guess that it was the substitutions that you made. Doubling the baking time probably was the reason for them getting so hard. I hope you have better luck next time!
Keep in mind cookies are generally only fresh for 3 days, but I’m sensing that wasn’t your issue.
Hey Angela! Thanks for the link, interesting article, and even more interesting comments. I’m enjoying skimming the excuses and rationale for both sides of the argument. Also, def. making these chickpea salad wraps this week. Looks delish, and you never let me down :)
Those wraps look AMAZING! Thanks so much for sharing :)
I adore chickpeas:) I also am a horrible lunch person- I never prepare things the night before, and by the time lunch rolls around I usually end up grabbing whatever’s easiest. But I love tuna salad- and this salad looks so colorful and absolutely delicious. Definitely trying, this week! And I read the article- I love Bittman.