This Vegan Chickpea Tuna Salad makes an amazing sandwich or toast topper. Do you want to know why? Well, it has texture, it has great flavour, it’s versatile – I can use it in salads or sandwiches. It’s a perfect no-cook salad filling for summer days or when time is short. Plus, the wonderfully creamy, thousand island style dressing makes it really delicious. Like the idea so far? Then read on…
This Vegan Chickpea Tuna Salad recipe has all the flavours of a tuna salad without the tuna. It includes many of the flavours but with the chickpeas standing in for the fish. These simple changes turn this recipe into a light vegan or vegetarian meal provided that you also use vegan mayonnaise to make the thousand Island dressing.
Ingredients in Chickpea Tuna Salad
- chickpeas – (mostly) beloved by vegans and vegetarians everywhere and a stalwart of so many recipes. This humble bean is the main ingredients. It’s easy to soak and cook your own and it’s readily available tinned at the supermarket. These need to be drained of the water they are canned with. (If you use aquafaba in your cooking, then save this for later.)
- red onion – this recipe uses 1/2 a finely chopped red onion, for colour, flavour and a little crunch.
- garlic powder – for a lovely garlic flavour. As it uses garlic powder you get the taste without it being too pungent on the breath. If this isn’t important, use a clove of fresh garlic.
- capers – chopped capers give saltiness and a nice flavour in keeping with it being like tuna salad.
- herbs – I use a tablespoon of chopped fresh dill. You could use parsley instead or a couple to teaspoons of dried herbs.
The Dressing
Instead of the usual mayonnaise, this version of Chickpea Tuna salad uses a quick to make Thousand Island dressing. It is a simple combination of your favourite mayonnaise, a squeeze of lemon juice and the very unlikely ingredient of tomato ketchup. It’s a pink dressing that’s is super quick to whip up in a small bowl and adds a lovely depth of flavour to the salad. Use vegan mayonnaise and keep it egg-free. Double the amount and drizzle some over your sandwich filling. You won’t be disappointed.
Variations you can make to this Recipe
I’ve already mentioned that this vegan Chickpea Tuna recipe is versatile. It’s easy to make changes when there is not strong tuna flavours to get in the way. These are a few of the variations you can make.
Yes, you can. If chickpeas aren’t for you, you could substitute cannellini beans instead, roughly mash them as you would the chickpeas and just follow the rest of the recipe. As cannellini beans have a softer texture, you may wish to think about adding some chopped celery or some sweetcorn to add a little bit of a crunch.
If you don’t like the idea of the thousand island dressing in this recipe you can substitute the same amount of your favourite mayonnaise. If you’d prefer not to use mayonnaise at all hummus makes a good substitute.
You could add a little extra crunch with some drained, tinned sweetcorn or some lightly toasted sunflower seeds. If you like a cheesey flavour you could add tablespoon of nutritional yeast if you’re vegan or 25g of cheese if you’re vegetarian. This recipe is quite versatile.
How about substituting a few chopped spring onions, or use a few chopped chives instead. If you don’t like the flavour of those either then just leave the onion out completely.
Serving Chickpea Tuna Salad
- This easy no-cook salad has lots of uses. Use it as part of a larger salad, adding lots of seasonal salad vegetables and some interesting leaves. Make a little extra of the thousand island dressing and drizzle it over the salad, looks pretty and adds a lot of flavour to the dish.
- Serve as a topping for jacket potatoes. Turn it into even more of a main meal by adding some salad and perhaps a dressing.
- It also works really well as a sandwich filling or as a filling for wraps. Add in a few other vegetables such as tomatoes, cucumber, lettuce or salad leaves. Awesome!
Is this Chickpea Tuna Salad Vegan?
To ensure that your salad is vegan, make it using a suitable vegan mayonnaise and if you go for adding a little cheesy flavour, ensure that the cheese is vegan or use nutritional yeast to get that cheesy hit.
If you cannot find a vegan-friendly mayo then use hummus instead. If it seems a little thick to make a dressing, pop some into a small bowl and thin it slightly by adding a little water and stirring it in well.
Is this recipe Dairy-free?
Make sure that your salad is dairy-free by using a suitable dairy-free mayonnaise. You will also need to check that the tomato ketchup that you use is dairy-free.
If you cannot find a dairy-free mayo then use hummus instead. If it seems a little thick to make a dressing, pop some into a small bowl and thin it slightly by adding a little water and stirring it in well.
Storing Chickpea Tuna Salad
This salad recipe will store well in the fridge for up to 3 days. It does not freeze well.
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Vegan Chickpea Tuna Salad with Thousand Island Style Dressing
Equipment
- mixing bowl
- measuring spoons
- fork
Ingredients
- 1 cup chickpeas from a 15 oz (400g) tin drained
- 1/2 red onion finely diced
- 1/2 lemon juice squeezed from 1/2 lemon
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder or finely chopped garlic clove
- 1 tablespoon capers finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon dill finely chopped
- salt and pepper adjust seasoning to your personal taste
Thousand Island Style Dressing
- 3 tablespoon mayonnaise vegan
- 1 tablespoon tomato ketchup
- squeeze of lemon juice
Instructions
- Drain the canned chickpeas and add to a bowl, using a fork or potato masher, mash the chickpeas. You're aiming to break them down to a soft consistency. Leave a few larger pieces of chickpea for texture.
- Finely chop 1/2 of a medium red onion and add to the bowl with the mashed chickpeas.
- Add all of the other ingredients and stir to combine.
- Add the Thousand Island Style dressing and stir through the chickpea mixture. Check the seasoning and serve.
Thousand Island Style Dressing
- Measure the mayonnaise into a small bowl along with the tomato ketchup and a squeeze of lemon juice.
- Stir thoroughly to combine, this is now ready to add to the chickpeas.
Notes
Nutrition
Why not Pin Chickpea Tuna salad for later?
This looks delicious! I can’t wait to try it for lunch!
Thank you Cyndi, I hope you like it.
I’ve been craving tuna salad recently; I’ll have to try this sometime! The pictures alone are making my mouth water.
I hope you enjoy it!