Did you know that you could turn a can of chickpeas into a ‘tuna’ salad?
It sounds crazy, I know! But you totally can do this.
Basically, you just sub in some chopped chickpeas for the tuna and everything else stays the same, and you end up with this super delicious, plant-based, tuna-like salad (without the tuna).
It’s amazing. And very tasty!
You can do as I did here, and pack it all on your favorite bread to build a sandwich. Or you can scoop some on top of your favorite salad. Really, anything you would do with traditional tuna salad can be done with this ‘chickpea’ version.
Now, you’ll notice I used all mayo in this recipe. But if you wanted to lighten it up or bulk up the protein, you can swap in some Greek yogurt for the mayo (assuming your are not a vegan!). It all works so just make it work for you. Enjoy!!

Vegan Chickpea 'Tuna Salad'
Yield: 2-4 servings
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 0 minutes
Total Time: 10 minutes
Ingredients:
- 1 can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
- 1/3 cup finely diced red onion
- 1/3 cup finely diced celery
- 1/3 cup finely diced radish
- 3 tbsp. capers, roughly chopped
- 1/4 cup mayonnaise (be sure to buy a vegan brand to keep this recipe 100% vegan)
- salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
- Add garbanzo beans to food processor and pulse a few times until you have a gravel-like consistency.
- Transfer beans to a medium bowl and add in the onion, celery, radish, capers, mayo and salt and pepper. Combine well.
*To build a sandwich, choose your favorite bread type of bread and layer some greens on one slice. Pile on the vegan tuna salad, pop on the top and enjoy!
Nutrients for half of the recipe (no bread): Calories: 346; Total Fat: 22.3g; Saturated Fat: 3g; Cholesterol: 10mg; Carbohydrate: 29.2g; Dietary Fiber: 6.5g; Sugars: 4.6g; Protein: 7.7g
Oh my Goodness I felt this needed to be spelled out, the chic pea tuna is soooooo good, I did it with the half mao half yogurt, makes a delicious sandwich and I cant wait to stuff some tomatoes with it and spread on a piece of celery, crackers, spread on a piece of romaine lettce, omg so many uses for this scrumptious mixture. Thank you so much for all your posts we love them all.
Thank you so much for sharing, debbie!! I’m so glad you enjoy the posts 🙂
If it’s a chickpea salad, why do we call it garbanzo beans in the list of ingredients. It’s a little confusing.
It’s funny because most people call them chick peas, but they are typically sold as garbanzo beans, but they are the same thing 🙂
How does it have cholesterol in it when plant foods don’t have it? It says 10mg cholesterol…
That’s a good question… I wonder if the vegan mayo had some coconut oil in it. That is the only plant I beleive that has some cholesterol.. even still this tiny bit is nothing compared to it’s animal counterpart. I would just check the label of the vegan mayo you buy 🙂
It’s from the mayo:)