Vegan "Tuna" Salad

This weekend I had a vegan "tuna" salad sandwich from one of the many excellent mobile food carts in Austin. In fairness, it has been years since I had real tuna salad. But I always really liked it, and was a little nervous that the imitation wouldn't live up to the memory of the real thing. I was especially surprised it wasn't fake meat used to simulate the tuna; it was chickpeas.

The sandwich was amazing. It used vegan mayonnaise, but it wasn't heavy. And it even tricked me into enjoying celery! I knew I had to recreate it. Only something mighty tasty can convince me not only to eat celery, but to actually buy some. If only it was sold by the stalk; I don't know what to do with the rest of it.

Ingredients:

2 can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
4 Tbps vegan mayonnaise (regular mayonnaise would be fine, but not as tasty!)
4 tsp brown mustard
a few Tbsp celery and red onion
dill
black pepper

Mash the chickpeas to desired consistency. Add remaining ingredients and stir to combine. Eat with a spoon, or on a slice of toasted bread with a tomato. Or make it un-vegan and add some cheese.

Smashed Chickpea Salad Sandwich

I found this recipe at Smitten Kitchen. I've been loving chickpeas lately, and in addition to those it also has some of my very favorite things. It's super easy to make, fairly filling, and pretty cheap too!

The original recipe had actual measurements, but I think this is something that is better when you make with the ratios that you like best!

1 can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
several black olives, roughly chopped
chopped red onion
chopped parsley - I used Italian flat-leaf
zest and juice of half a lemon
crushed red pepper (the original recipe didn't have this, but I put it in almost everything)
salt and pepper to taste
olive oil

Mix everything together, smash the chickpea mixture until it's the consistency you want. Smitten Kitchen described it as a "deconstructed hummus."

Spread on toasted bread.

Makes 3-4 sandwiches.

Lemony Chickpea Stir-Fry

It's hard to decide, but I really think this is my favorite recipe I've tried lately. The chickpeas got just a little bit crispy on the outside, and the lemon really brightened it up. I've also really been enjoying kale lately, and it went really well in this dish. It's probably my favorite of the dark greens that I've tried. Its flavor is much more mellow than chard.

Ingredients:

1 can of chickpeas
1/2 container of tofu, pressed (about 7 ounces)
2 shallots
about 1 1/2 cups of kale, chopped
zest and juice of half a lemon
1/2 t salt
bit of pepper
olive oil

First things first I set the tofu up to drain. I buy tofu packed in water, so for a meal like this it needs to be drained and pressed. I also rinsed and drained the chickpeas in a colander for a little while. They're added to a pan with hot oil, so you want to make sure you get as much liquid off of the chickpeas as possible so the water doesn't pop in the oil.

Add just enough olive oil to coat the pan at about medium heat and add the chickpeas and salt. Toss them around so they're evenly coated in the oil. Stir them occasionally and let them cook until they brown a bit on the outside, about 10-15 minutes. While they cooked I chopped up the shallots and added them about 10 minutes in. The pan was hot, and I didn't want the shallots to burn.


Then I added the tofu, cut in small pieces. The goal was just to get the tofu warmed through, so I stirred it often to prevent it from sticking. I wanted to keep the texture of the raw tofu. After a few minutes I added the chopped kale and stirred it around until it was wilted.

I finished it with a bit more salt, some pepper, and the lemon juice and zest.

I got this recipe from http://www.101cookbooks.com but I made some small changes.