This chickpea salad is just like chicken salad, but made with chickpeas! The recipe is so easy, and a great way to switch up your lunches for the week. My favorite way to enjoy this recipe is on top of sourdough toast, topped with some arugula or microgreens.
This dish is also super affordable, especially because you may already have most of the ingredients on hand in the pantry or fridge. This was one of my go-to recipes in college for easy and cheap lunches! You can easily adjust this recipe to suit your tastes, so experiment with whatever you have on hand!
Key Tips - Chickpea Salad Sandwich Filling
Substitute dried chickpeas if desired.
- If you have dried chickpeas on hand, feel free to use them in this recipe! 1 ½ cups dried chickpeas should be the correct amount for this recipe once they're prepared.
Customize to suit your taste.
- This recipe is a great blank-slate that you can customize further if desired! Use whatever you have on hand, or the components of your favorite chicken salad!
Save the liquid from your chickpea cans!
- The liquid in chickpea cans is called aquafaba, and actually has a number of interesting uses! I dont have any recipes on the site that use aquafaba, but you can read more about it here!
Use a food processor to quickly break down the chickpeas.
- Technically, you can mash them by hand with a fork, but it's so much easier to pulse them in a food processor for a few seconds. Pictured below is the texture I typically shoot for. You don't want to over-process them, it should only take a few seconds.
Dietary Restrictions - Chickpea Salad Sandwich Filling
This dish is naturally Dairy-Free.
This dish is naturally Gluten-Free
This dish is naturally Vegetarian
Make it Vegan
- The only non-vegan ingredient in this dish is the mayonnaise, which contains eggs. Substitute vegan mayo to make this dish fully vegan.
A Note On Serving Sizes
Serving sizes are a very personal thing, making it very difficult for me to select a serving size that suits everyone. While this is listed as 6 servings, many people would prefer to have a larger serving. I typically use this recipe to make about 4 very loaded sandwiches, or 6 lightly filled or small sandwiches.
Chickpea Salad
Ingredients
- 2 15.5 oz cans chickpeas (garbonzo beans)
- ½ cup finely diced shallot about 1 large shallot, can sub onion
- ¼ cup mayo can sub vegan mayo
- 2 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon whole grain dijon mustard I use Grey Poupon brand
- 3 tablespoon chopped chives or green onion
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- ¼ cup roughly chopped cornichon (mini) pickles can sub other pickles, or 2 tablespoon relish
- salt to taste
- fresh cracked black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Drain and rinse the chickpeas
- Mash the chickpeas with a fork, or pulse in a food processor until chunky (recommended method if you have one available).
- Combine all ingredients together in a medium mixing bowl, season with salt and pepper, mix until fully combined.
- Taste the mixture and add more of any ingredient to your liking.
- Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days. Use as a sandwich filling, serve on toast, or with crackers.
Nutrition
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Send me pictures of your creations -- it'll make my day! Message @CraftyCookbook on Instagram, email me ([email protected]), or tag me in a post! Please note, tagged posts are only visible to me if your account is public. Did you make any interesting changes or substitutions for this recipe? Tell me about them in the comment section below!
Matthew says
Loved this recipe! My wife and I, while not veg, are veg-curious, so when we get see something that could quell the carnivore we jump on it. I made this to go along with my home-made sourdough for work-lunches for the both of us. One of us doesn't really like to do repeat lunches, but these sandwiches with the chickpea filling really brought us back all week. I even had to stop her from opening up the container and getting scoops on chips!
Recommended additions: smokey paprika, and bit of cayenne, and a small drizzle of extra virgin olive oil (but not too much so you don't lose consistency).
Jacqueline Schell says
So glad you enjoyed it, using it with your homemade sourdough sounds incredible!
Thanks so much for commenting and including modification ideas!!
Sally says
Great recipe! I've been interested in veggie lunch ideas that'll keep me full, and this recipe is exactly what I was looking for. I didn't have green onion and I just used dijon mustard, but it still came out really good. I'm looking forward to experimenting with adding different flavours to this recipe. Thanks!
Julie says
Loved this! Never thought to use chickpeas like this. It was delicious!
Anonymous says
Great recipe! threw everything in blender and added sriracha - very good
Grant says
I stumbled across this recipe on Reddit, and boy am I glad I did. I make this at least once every couple weeks. It tastes so fresh and delightfully tangy. Everybody I've made some for has absolutely loved it! Don't think it needs any modifications whatsoever, though I have only tried it with onions as I seem to have trouble finding shallots where I live.
Jacqueline Schell says
So glad to hear you've been enjoying this recipe, thanks for commenting!!
Gianna Vereb says
Pretty! This was a really wonderful article. Thanks for providing this info.