Description
When you need an easy, flavorful, and healthy recipe that is easy to prepare and requires no cooking, look no further than our tasty Harvest Chickpea Salad; it’s the perfect dish to put a smile on your face and make your belly happy. Hearty chickpeas, crisp celery, zesty red onions, sweet carrots, tart apples, chewy dried cranberries, and toasty pecans mixed with a creamy dressing bursting with harvest-flavored spices and herbs, really delivers a mouthful of flavor! Serve this hearty salad in sandwiches, wraps, lettuce cups, or as a salad topper – YUM!
Whole Food Plant Based, vegan, plant based, oil free, refined sugar free, no highly processed ingredients and gluten free.
Ingredients
Salad Ingredients:
- ¼ cup celery, small dice
- ¼ cup red onion, fine dice
- ¼ cup grated carrot *
- ½ gala apple, small dice
- 1 – [ 15.5 oz. can ] chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- ¼ cup to ½ cup dried cranberries (+/-) (optional) *
- ¼ cup toasted pecans, coarsely chopped (+/-) (optional) *
Harvest Sauce Ingredients:
- 5 to 6 Tablespoons Vegan Mayonnaise * (see notes)
- 1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon dried crushed thyme leaves *
- ½ teaspoon dried ground mustard powder
- ¼ teaspoon dried ground rosemary (+/-)
- ¼ teaspoon dried rubbed sage (+/-)
- Tiny pinch nutmeg (optional)
- Pinch celery seeds (optional)
- 1/8 teaspoon black pepper (+/-)
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt (+/-) *
Instructions
- Make the Harvest Sauce by placing all the sauce ingredients into a small bowl and whisking to combine, refrigerate until ready to use.
- Rinse and drain the chickpeas, shake off any excess water. Place the chickpeas into a large bowl, roughly mash, then add all the remaining Salad Ingredients, mix to evenly distribute the ingredients.
- Pour the Harvest Sauce over the mixture, gently toss. Taste test for flavor. Add more seasoning, if needed. Let stand for 10 minutes to allow the spices and herbs to activate. Served immediately at room temperature. Refrigerate any leftovers.
Notes
*Dried Thyme Leaves: We use Penzeys French Thyme. It has amazing flavor. If you can’t find dried thyme leaves, you can use ground thyme, but use half the amount.
*Grated Carrots: We used a vegetable julienne peeler to cut the carrots into long thin strips, then cut those into small pieces. We used grated carrots in previous kitchen tests, and while grated carrots work perfectly in this recipe, we really enjoyed the texture of the julienne peeled carrots. We tried diced carrots as well, they were just a tad too crunchy. We suggest grated or julienned carrots. For those interested, we used a Kuhn Rikon Julienne Peeler.
*Vegan Mayonnaise: We used our Vegan Mayonnaise recipe. We think it works perfectly with this salad. You can use any vegan mayonnaise you wish, just know that the flavors may slightly change, and you may need to adjust seasonings accordingly.
*Dried Cranberries: Most dried cranberries are dried with sugar as they are extremely tart without it. Most WFPB doctors make allowances for dried fruit that have small amounts of sugar when used as a treat. There are some brands of dried cranberries that the only ingredient is cranberries. You typically can locate them online. They are very tart, and you can expect the same in the chickpea salad. OR, you can add quartered or halved red grapes in place of the dried cranberries so you can get that sweet bite without the dried cranberries.
*Toasted Pecans (optional): You don’t have to toast the pecans; however, toasting them brings out their natural sweetness and add a toasty flavor. To toast them, simply place them in a dry skillet over medium heat and swirl them around the pan until they are warm and you can smell their fragrance. Watch them carefully as they burn easily. Takes about 3 to 4 minutes. Allow them to slightly cool before adding to the chickpea salad.
*Flavors: The flavors get more intense the longer the chickpea salad “rests/marinades.” The next day it’s even more flavorful.
*Sea Salt: Please adjust the sea salt based upon your family’s sea salt preferences and/or based upon dietary needs.
*Serving: 3 to 4
*Storage: Refrigerate, use within 5 days.
*Nutritional Information: Nutritional information does include optional ingredients of dried cranberries and pecans as well as our cashew based mayonnaise. If you omit both the cranberries and pecans, but still use our cashew based mayonnaise the nutritional information is as follows: 161 calories, 7g fat, 20g carbohydrates, 6.4g protein. Keep in mind adjusting the mayonnaise used will change the nutritional information.