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.
Featuring all new, protein-packed salads, hearty toppers, flavour boosters, and dressings you'll want to drink, my new cookbook will transform the way you think about salads. Oh, and be sure to flip to the back for a surprise dessert chapter!
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 made this yesterday and will reluctantly finish it today – this is beyond good. I subbed walnuts for sunflower seeds, as my sunflower seed supply is running low.
This website is amazing; is there a recipe box?
I e-mailed about four recipes to myself and can’t wait to try them all.
You help people everyday with a new recipe or tip! I like to help people feel better and make better choices also. How you continually create new and healthy ideas is beyond me! You are an inspiration. Thanks so much!
Made this for dinner tonight with a side of brown rice pilaf – delicious! Thanks so much, Angela. I’m new to the vegan diet and enjoying your website very much.
Holy crap, this is amazing. My vegan friend is visiting and so we decided to make this for dinner. We had our doubts, but you’re right this is delicious. The texture is excellent, a tad bit of crunch to the delicious tenderness of the garbanzo beans.
We’d written down the ingredients list here, but you didn’t include the “wraps/tortillas” so when we got home, we decided to use the whole grain bread we’d bought at the store. We lightly toasted the bread, and then buttered it a little bit with vegan butter. DELISH.
Just found and made this recipe. LOVED it! mybikramyogalife.com/2014/02/14/featured-recipe-chickpea-salad-wraps/
Love this! Sooooo good :)
It’s funny you’re not really into preparing lunch because you have the best lunch ideas out there! thank you!
I know this post is kind of old, but I had this for lunch today and it was delicious! Thank you for making my husband and I’s transition into being vegan so easy and yummy :)
Thank you! This is wonderful and easy.
Thank you so much for this recipe, Made for a quick dinner last night and is now my lunch for the rest of the week. I added a bit of cumin and it tasted amazing. I just found your site, and I am already planning on trying so many of your recipes. Thanks again!
I make this all the time! It is one of my boyfriend’s favorite things to eat and he asks for it often. We make a big batch on the weekend to take for lunch throughout the week. Thanks for sharing!
OMG! These are the best EVER! My sister and I make these ALL THE TIME!!!!! I bought your book months ago and my sister was intrigued, so she bought one too. She (and myself) are addicted to your recipes. EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM HAVE TURNED OUT SO WELL!!!!! We have literally made our way through your entire recipe book! So needless to say, when I saw the chickpea salad recipe, I was soooooooooooo excited…..I make it all the time for lunch! Thanks for the great recipes, website and all that you are!!! A great inspiration! Everyone of your followers must make this salad. I wrap mine in whole wheat wrap! Yumo!
I made this dish for dinner last night and can I just say….YUM!!!! My meat-loving husband even loved it and said it tasted like tuna fish. I also love the health factor. Thanks for the great recipe! I just stumbled upon your blog and I’m in love! =)
Christin
veggiechick.com
I wanted to share a version of your recipe that I came up with. Your Chickpea Salad is my “go to” lunch option at least once a week. Thanks for sharing and I hope you like my recipe.
Suzanne
Suzanne’s Chickpea Salad
Yield: 4 generous servings
Ingredients:
§ 1 (29-oz) can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
§ ½ cup chopped celery (or as much as you like)
§ 3 Tbl chopped red or sweet onion (or as much as you want)
§ 1 large granny smith apple, small chop (or any kind of apple you like)
§ 1 cup dried cranberries (you can find them without added sugar in Whole Foods or Trader Joes)
§ ½ cup chopped walnuts (or as much as you like)
§ salt and pepper to taste
§ ~ ½ cup mayonnaise (more or less to your liking)
§ Lavash flatbread (or any ‘wrap’ you like)
§ Lettuce
1. In a medium-large bowl mash the chickpeas (you can leave some bigger chunks of chickpeas for a more “meaty” texture)
2. Add the remaining ingredients except the flatbread/wrap and lettuce.
3. Lay lettuce of your choice on flatbread to keep the flatbread from getting soggy. Add as much of the salad as you like. Roll and eat!
o As you can tell by my recipe, I basically just add whatever I like until it tastes good to me. I do the same with the original recipe.
o The original recipe is yummy!!!! I tend to add extra pickle and use mayonnaise or some of the pickle juice to moisten.
WOW. Just tried this and it was GREAT. I’ve really missed tuna salad and wanted something similar, this definitely hit the spot. I left out sunflower seeds and threw about 1/3 of the chickpeas into the chopper for a different texture- and it made it so much better. Tuna fish sandwiches are kind of a mushy conglomerate of ingredients, so mashing up the chickpeas made it closer to that. I also had no wraps, so I put it on a piece of toasted baguette cut in half- and it was DELICIOUS!
Highly, highly recommend!
Just trying these out for dinner tonight! Added some olive tapenade, fresh spinach and a touch of gouda to the base of the wrap and am going to grill them! looking forward to it :)
I just made this for lunch, OMG, it’s delicious!!!
Thank you so much for sharing the recipe! I love your website!!
I made these wraps last night. So good. I recently switched to a veg diet and I’m hoping to make changes by making a couple of your recipes every week. Next up are the quinoa cakes!
Just had this for lunch, probably have for dinner too! Scrumptious! :-)
Just made this recipe tonight, and I loved it !! Very fresh, something different with the pickle flavor. I love chickpeas so this was right up my alley. Will make again ~ thank you!!