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
I used to be a tuna addict too, and though I don’t miss eating the actually fish I do miss the simplicity of tuna salad sandwiches. I’m going to have to try this asap! Looks delicious.
This looks great, but I hate mustard! Can you suggest a substitution?
It’s probably optional!
I’m pretty sure I have the same hummus sandwich 3-4 times per week for lunch. I’m definitely in need of some new lunch ideas. :P This chickpea salad wrap looks perfect! Thanks for the recipe.
looks tasty! I am definitley going to have to try this!
I want to say thank you so much for focusing on whole, balanced, vegan meals. I find that bloggers often get tangeld up in cleansing, detoxing, etc… and its really nice to be able to trust that you will give us readers some awesome meals that we can rely on at all times. You are so real, and your blog is truly a blessing.
Thank you Angela
Thank you, I’m happy that you are enjoying the blog!
This looks great! I’m bookmarking this to make for lunches next week.
This salad sounds lovely! I really need a new wrap in my life!
Oh wow, I want to skip the wrap part and just eat that chickpea salad with a spoon, it looks great!
All the ingredients for the Chickpea Salad Wraps are staples in our house. Why didn’t I think of this? I’m making this for lunch tomorrow! Lunches are hard to come up with especially when you are “brown bagging” it to work.
I 100% agree, making lunch is no fun. I love making dinner and even enjoy prepping my breakfast the night before. Lunches, for some reason, don’t excite me. This wrap could turn things around though…
I am so excited to try this! Thanks for sharing :) and thanks for being such an inspiration. things have been challenging lately and i always appreciate your humor, your recipes, and your candid self reflections <3!
I need to get chickpeas back in my life! They bothered my baby’s belly since I breastfeed but i haven’t tried them in a while. I am buying some from the grocery store tomorrow! Homemade hummus and chickpea salads this week!
I haven’t eaten this a whole meal yet, but putting together the recipe for tomorrow, I tried a bit, and it was fantastic! I think this may be my go-to lunch, thanks a million!
YUMMMM I love chickpeas :)
And wraps… Chickpeas in wrap sounds so good.
Oh, and I loved that link!
Chickpeas are such a staple for me! I always have at least 2 cans in my cupboard. I’ve been wanting to make a mock tuna for a while now… going to do something similar to this with some kelp powder!
This looks amazing! I am definitely making it tomorrow. Think some tahini would be good addition?
Yea I was wondering about tahini too, but wanted to keep the ingredients fairly short. Let me know if you try it!
I tried it earlier and it was delicious! The tahini made it creamy & balanced out the flavors really well for me. Thanks for the recipe!
I also wanted to say thank you for creating such a wonderful blog! It has really helped me get past my overwhelming first few months of being vegan and has given me a positive outlook. Reading your blog and making the amazing food has finally made me feel confident and proud of my decision :)
This looks great! I make a chickpea salad sandwich which is sort of supposed to mimic egg salad sandwich, with the chickpeas a little more mashed up. I’ll have to give this wrap version a try. My husband and I prep our lunches for the entire week on Sunday afternoon, including veggie sandwiches. We’ve got a system which prevents them from going soggy – it works, I swear! There is no way I’d get up and make myself something nutritious to pack for lunch each day, so bulk prep in advance is the way to go!
Care to share your system?
Yes, please do tell! We need to bulk prep at our house, but it never seems to work well for us. I would love some tips.
I pack my sandwich filling separate from my bread until I get to work. Makes for more tupperware and ziplocks in the lunchbag but I HATE soggy bread!
Yum! I love chickpeas and am obsessed with hummus. Im also TOTALLY obsessed with dill pickles (those jars last me 5 days or less, no exaggeration) so this would be perfect for me. ANd I’m OCD enough to love, love, love chopping.
I posted a recipe yesterday for my favourite lunch – which is a baked aubergine (eggplant!) spread with hummus. Its like a breadless sandwich – only loads more filling and nutritious! Totally try it – like no prep required :)
Oh my, Angela! They look wonderful. I love the herb dill, I bet it’s an interesting addition to these wraps. Fantastic recipe. Hope you’re well, much love from England.
http://hannahalehandra.blogspot.com/
I never had a wrap with chickpea’s, but I know I would love it! Going to bookmark this recipe and try it out this week!! I can’t wait!!
Very nice! I’m the same way on weekends (that’s when I do most of my blog recipe prep). I’ll get through the whole day and realized all I’ve eaten is pieces and chunks of the stuff I’m baking or cooking. A little spoonful there, a bite there… I’m horrible! This sandwich filling looks soooo good! Sometimes when I’m super busy I’ll mix chickpeas with avocado, cumin and a bit of olive oil. Makes for another great sandwich filler!