Chickpea Salad
Our chickpea salad is so easy to make! It is basically a twist on potato salad, just sub chickpeas for the potato.
In our restaurant we would put dry chickpeas in the pressure cooker for 30 minutes, drain and cool them while we prepared the fresh veggies. If you want to make things even easier on yourself just use canned chickpeas. (Be sure to save that beautiful bean water either way! Aquafaba has so many applications. If I was not ready to use it all right away, I would pour it in ice cube trays and freeze it so that I would have pre-measured and easy to store aquafaba whenever I needed it!)
Dicing up red onion and celery is pretty straight forward. The fresh herbs (dill and flat-leafed parsley) can be a little messy if you do not have experience with fresh herbs. First, let me back up a bit and say that the best herbs are at the farmer's market. Seems to go without saying, but there can be a huge difference in taste. Your dill should be especially fragrant. Snap off or pinch a little bit, if you can't smell it right away you will just need to use a lot more to achieve the same flavor. By the time we were done prepping the salad in our kitchen the entire place smelled of dill! You can absolutely use the stems of either herb, but most people prefer to use only the delicate leaves of the plants. So all you need to do is run the plant gently through your fingers. Then roll or pile the leaves into a ball and chop. We would do a pretty loose chop, so no need to get carried away!
Once you have your veggies and herbs chopped, and chickpeas cooked and cooled, you are ready to assemble your salad! Again, this is pretty straight forward--throw it all in a bowl and stir until everything is evenly coated with vegan mayo and seasoning. Just a quick note on the seasoning: the dry mustard has got a little heat to it, so if you want more kick add a little more mustard. The steak seasoning has the salt, so go easy! It is easier to add more seasoning than it is to add more salad to cut salt. (BTW, I LOVE the Montreal Steak Seasoning! If you keep an eye out you will notice that I use this spice blend a lot.)
This salad is so good as a side dish, but it can also be put on a sandwich. Add a little snack seaweed and you have a mock tuna! Blend it a little for a chunky dip!
Chickpea Salad
PREP TIME 10 | COOK TIME 30 | TOTAL TIME 40
Servings: 4-6
Category: side salad
Cuisine: salad
Ingredients*
Chickpeas 2-15 oz cans or 2 cups cooked, and drained
Celery, diced 1/4 cup
Red Onion, diced 1/4 cup
Parsley, chopped 2-3 Tbl
Dill, chopped 2-3 Tbl
Ground Mustard 1/4 tsp
Steak Seasoning 1/2 Tbl
Mayo 1/4 cup
Instructions
Cook, drain and cool chickpeas if not using canned. While chickpeas are cooking dice the celery, onion and herbs.
Once the peas are ready add them and the veggies and herbs to a medium bowl and toss together. Dust the top of the salad with the dry mustard and add the steak seasoning. Spoon in the mayo and stir until evenly coated with seasoning and mayo.
Serve cold.
Notes
I really don't measure ingredients when I make this salad. I go by sight and smell and then I taste and tweak if needed, so these are approximate measurements.
