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This Vegan Tuna Salad is so close to the real thing, you won’t believe it’s made with canned chickpeas instead of fish. Mix up a batch for weekly meal prep and enjoy quick and easy vegan sandwiches all week long!
A 10-Minute Vegan Lunch Meal Prep!
When it comes to quick and easy no-cook vegan lunch ideas, it’s hard to go wrong with an easy vegan sandwich. But not all vegan sandwich recipes are created equal!
If you’ve made vegan tuna salad in the past you may have run into a few common issues – too mushy, not flavorful, or lacking that classic ‘seafood-like’ flavor. But not today.
This “tuna” salad is
- Perfectly textured with creamy mayo, hearty chickpeas, and crisp celery.
- Infused with umami “flavor of the sea” thanks to dulse flakes or nori sheets.
- Made with 9 simple ingredients – many of which are likely already in your kitchen.
So without further ado, let’s veganize tuna salad in less than 10 minutes.
Ingredients You’ll Need
- Chickpeas: One can of drained and rinsed chickpeas will make enough for about 4 sandwiches. If you are cooking your chickpeas from scratch, you’ll need about 1 ¾ cups of cooked chickpeas.
- Vegan mayonnaise: Classic tuna salad is traditionally made with mayonnaise, so we opted for vegan mayonnaise to keep the flavor as similar as possible. Our favorite vegan brands are Follow Your Heart Veganaise or Best Foods/Hellman’s Vegan Mayo.
- Celery: A refreshing, essential crunch in any tuna salad!
- Red onion: Provides a sharp bite that balances the creaminess in the vegan mayo. If you prefer a milder onion flavor, soak the red onion in ice water for 10-15 minutes before using to mute the sharpness.
- Condiments: Besides vegan mayonnaise, you’ll need sweet relish and mustard of your choice.
- Lemon juice: Brightens the overall salad by balancing the richness in the mayo and enhances the overall freshness.
- Nori or dulse flakes: While optional, these seaweed-based ingredients are key for adding that “fishy” like tuna flavor without any fish at all. It’s pretty mild, so you don’t have to worry about an overpowering fishy flavor.
- Sandwich fixings: Think your favorite bread or tortillas, lettuce, sprouts, tomatoes, onion, cucumbers, pickles, avocado, etc!
Equipment Needed
- Medium-sized mixing bowl
- Fork or potato masher
How to Make Vegan Tuna Salad
Making “tuna” salad from chickpeas is as easy as it gets!
- Mash the chickpeas. Add the drained and rinsed chickpeas to a medium sized bowl, then use a fork or potato masher to mash the chickpeas to your desired “tuna” consistency. We prefer to keep ours a bit chunky, but feel free to make it as smooth as you like.
- Add the remaining ingredients. Mix everything together until well combined. If the chickpeas seem too chunky, you can do some additional mashing.
- Adjust the seasonings to taste. Want it a bit more “fishy”? Add additional nori sheets or dulse flakes. Want it more creamy? Add vegan mayonnaise. Prefer it a bit more zesty? Squeeze in a bit of extra mustard and sweet relish! Don’t be afraid to experiment with it.
- Enjoy! This vegan tuna salad can be enjoyed right away or stored and chilled for meal prep.
Serving Suggestions
The classic go-to for us is a vegan tuna sandwich with our favorite sandwich bread or whole wheat bread and fixings like thinly sliced red onions, tomatoes, and lettuce. If you’re gluten-free, use your favorite gluten-free sandwich bread.
You can also turn this “tuna” salad into a Chickpea Salad Lunch Wrap with Sauerkraut, a warm and cheesy Vegan Tuna Melt with Vegan Mozzarella Cheese, or simply enjoy with your favorite crackers and veggies!
Can I make this tuna salad oil-free?
Yes! Instead of the typical vegan mayonnaise, swap in ½ cup of mashed avocado or 3 tablespoons of creamy tahini for an oil-free version.
Tahini is a much stronger flavor than vegan mayonnaise so you’ll want to use a much lower amount to prevent the tahini from overpowering the rest of the flavors.
Storage Instructions
This chickpea salad will keep for up to 5 days in an airtight container in the refrigerator. For best results, store the salad separately and assemble your sandwich or wrap right before enjoying.
Freezing is not recommended.
More Vegan Sandwich Recipes You May Enjoy:
Make sure you tag us on Instagram @sweetsimplevegan and @consciouschris and hashtag #sweetsimplevegan if you make this recipe. We love to see your photos!
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Classic Vegan Tuna Salad Recipe
- Total Time: 10 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings
- Diet: Vegan
Description
This Vegan Tuna Salad is so close to the real thing, you won’t believe it’s made with canned chickpeas instead of fish. Mix up a batch for weekly meal prep and enjoy quick and easy vegan sandwiches all week long!
Ingredients
- 1 (15 oz.) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- 1/2 cup vegan mayonnaise
- 1/3 cup finely chopped celery
- 1/4 cup finely diced red onions
- 1 1/2 tablespoons sweet relish
- 1 tablespoon mustard of choice
- 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 sheet finely shredded nori OR 1-2 tablespoons dulse flakes (optional but highly recommended)
- 1/8 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
- Salt to taste
Serve with
- 8 slices of toasted bread
- Sliced tomatoes
- Thinly sliced red onions
- Lettuce or spinach
Equipment
- Medium-sized mixing bowl
- Fork or potato masher
Instructions
- Mash the chickpeas. Add the drained and rinsed chickpeas to a medium sized bowl, then use a fork or potato masher to mash the chickpeas to your desired “tuna” consistency. We prefer to keep ours a bit chunky, but feel free to make it as smooth as you like.
- Add the remaining ingredients. Mix everything together until well combined. If the chickpeas seem too chunky, you can do some additional mashing.
- Adjust the seasonings to taste. Want it a bit more “fishy”? Add additional nori sheets or dulse flakes. Want it more creamy? Add vegan mayonnaise. Prefer it a bit more zesty? Squeeze in a bit of extra mustard and sweet relish! Don’t be afraid to experiment with it.
- Enjoy! This vegan tuna salad can be enjoyed right away or stored and chilled for meal prep. We served ours in a sandwich with thinly sliced red onions, tomatoes and lettuce.
Notes
- Mayo: If you would like to skip the mayo, mashed avocado or tahini work well. Swap in ½ cup of mashed avocado or 3 tablespoons of creamy tahini. Tahini is a much stronger flavor than vegan mayonnaise so you’ll want to use a much lower amount to prevent the tahini from overpowering the rest of the flavors.
- Storage: This chickpea salad will keep for up to 5 days in an airtight container in the refrigerator. For best results, store the salad separately and assemble your sandwich or wrap right before enjoying.
- Freezing: Not recommended.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Category: Lunch, Entree
- Method: No Cook
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This vegan “tuna“ salad is quite good. And simple just like your name suggest! Lemon and mustard were new to me for a chickpea kind of salad. Very much added to the flavor. Thanks!
Great recipe but I wanted it to taste/feel a little more tuna-y, so I thought about something I could sub for chickpeas, which can be a bit on the bland and mushy side, and decided to try artichoke hearts. It is awesome! It has that brininess (“tuna-yness”) that I was missing with the chickpeas. So all I did was sub a can of artichoke hearts (rinsed, well-drained, and well-chopped) for the chickpeas. Everything else stayed exactly the same. SO good!
My search for the perfect “tuna” salad recipe is over! I’ve tired so many and they all just taste like mashed up chickpeas. This one is THE one! It gets closer to any chickpea “tuna” salad recipe I’ve tried. I made a batch at the start of the week and have been having it every day for lunch, on a wrap with other veggies, on toasted bread as a sandwich, or just straight up with a fork. Thank you!!! This will become a staple for me. I can’t wait to try a “tuna” melt–something I’ve really missed.
7/21/20 – Made this for lunch today. I didn’t have sweet relish or dulse flakes; however, it still turned out great and was quite tasty. I added Old Bay as recommended by another comment. How long is the chickpea water good for if I don’t have a need for it immediately? I hate wasting anything. I absolutely love your channel and the emails.
Glad you enjoyed the recipe! We’ve kept it for up to a week and it was fine 🙂
Hi !
what could I use instead of the sweet relish?
In Italy it’s (almost) impossible to find
Love your channel guys !
This is, by far, my favorite vegan tuna salad recipe! I cook for my mom, who is mostly vegan and she often asks for “normal” food, which I’ve learned means flavors she was used to before changing her diet. This recipe fits the bill perfectly! I love that it’s easy to throw together with things I usually have in the pantry, I’ve made it without the red onion and celery when I didn’t have those in hand and it’s still delicious. I bought a jar of dulse flakes years ago and haven’t touched it since, so glad I have a way to use it now! I usually eat the sandwich as you have in the recipe, sometimes I add a slice of vegan cheese. Tonight I had the idea to add tempeh bacon to this sandwich, I will try that next time! Thanks for such a great recipe!!
I just made this and it is awesome. I actually made this because I made your lemon poppyseed loaf (which was mind blowing by the way) and had leftover chickpeas and thought this was the perfect option. It was awesome, I did add a little black salt for the eggy taste of tuna salad and some old bay. Can’t wait to try more or your recipes and love all of your videos.
That is such a great idea, thanks for sharing. We should have totally made some of that loaf with our aquafaba haha. And black salt + old bay sound delish in this!
I’m going to put some of this together tonight to allow the flavors to blend. Maybe I’ll double the recipe. We will have it for lunch tomorrow. I’ll let you know how it was received.
Yay! I hope thats you like it 🙂
This was great! I feel like I make a new chickpea salad recipe every week, and this one is definitely. a keeper!
We are so happy that you liked this Anna, thanks for sharing! 🙂