Chickpea Salad Sandwich
This Chickpea Salad Sandwich is one kind thing you can do for yourself this week. It takes mere minutes to make, is filled with wholesome ingredients, and the leftover mashed chickpea salad filling saves several days so you’ll have a fast, healthy meal on hand when you need it. I found myself looking forward to lunch every day that it was in our refrigerator.
I don’t know about you, but once summer arrives, my weekend eating habits tend to become a little…lax.
Chip. Dip. Drink. Repeat.
Throw in a few patio brunches and BBQs and you have the makings for a summer weekend routine that I certainly wouldn’t skip but that also leaves me feeling a little “oops” when I wake up on Monday morning (or in the case of this past long weekend, Tuesday morning).
At one point in my life, I would also have woken up feeling guilty.
Now instead of wasting my energy on regret, I’ve found it a much more positive, productive, and healthy use of my time to prepare a few nourishing meals to enjoy throughout the week. I have more energy, feel better about myself, and by Friday? I’m ready to greet the weekend with gusto.
Chickpea Salad Sandwich – A Simple, Healthy Recipe You’ll Love
This Chickpea Salad Sandwich is my latest “be good to yourself” weekday recipe. It’s a tangle of satisfying flavors and textures that tastes fabulous. Eating healthy meals should never mean feeling deprived. Its healthy ingredient line-up means it will leave you feeling fabulous too.
My main inspiration for this Chickpea Salad Sandwich is curry. I adore curry chicken salad, and I suspected that a similar flavor profile would work well with chickpeas, which are a staple in Indian cuisine. BINGO!
In addition to pairing well with curry, chickpeas are also super affordable, high in protein and fiber, and because they keep well in the refrigerator, they are an ideal choice for meal prep lunches. This Mediterranean Chickpea Salad and the Moroccan Chickpea Salad are two of my other favorite weekday-friendly chickpea salad recipes.
To complement the curry and give the mashed chickpea salad layers of interesting texture, I added plump, chewy golden raisins, diced celery, and toasted cashews.
The crunch of the celery and cashews is a nice contrast to the creaminess of the chickpeas and dressing. The golden raisins provide the right amount of sweetness to balance the curry’s spice.
Due to my lifetime aversion to the “m”-word, this is a Chickpea Salad Sandwich NO MAYO!!! I used entirely nonfat plain Greek yogurt. It’s high in protein, ultra creamy, and perfect for making a healthy, super creamy curry chickpea salad.
We enjoyed this tasty chickpea salad filling stuffed inside a whole wheat pita, but you could also serve over greens, dipped with crackers, or served open-faced on toasted bread.
Be good to yourself this week!
- 1 15- ounce can reduced sodium chickpeas rinsed and drained
- 3 tablespoons nonfat plain Greek yogurt
- 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon pure maple syrup or honey
- 2 teaspoons curry powder plus additional to taste
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- pinch black pepper
- 2 stalks celery finely chopped
- 1 green onion finely chopped, plus additional to taste or for garnish
- 1/4 cup roasted unsalted cashews chopped (or swap almonds or sunflower seeds)
- 3 tablespoons raisins or golden raisins
- For serving: pita toasted bread, crackers, and/or a big bed of greens
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Place the chickpeas in a large mixing bowl and roughly mash with a fork. Leave a few bigger pieces for texture.
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Add the Greek yogurt, lemon juice, maple syrup (or honey), curry powder, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Mix well with a spoon. Taste and add additional salt, pepper, or curry powder to taste.
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Mix in the celery, green onion, cashews, and raisins. Enjoy cold or at room temperature inside a pita, on toasted bread, dipped with crackers, or over a bed of greens.
- Store leftovers in the refrigerator for 3-4 days.
This post contains some affiliate links, which means that I make a small commission off items you purchase at no additional cost to you.
About Erin Clarke
I’m fearlessly dedicated to making healthy food taste incredible. Wearer of plaid, travel enthusiast, and firmly convinced that sweets and veggies both deserve a place at the table. MORE ABOUT ERIN…
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Read this before lunch and happened to have all ingredients on hand! Made it with sunflower seeds, ate it with snackbread and rice crackers and was really delicious! Always desperate for healthy and tasty lunch ideas so thank you! Have shared link with our daughters!
Karen, thank you so much for your positive feedback! I’m always looking for quick, easy, and healthy recipes for lunch, too and I’m thrilled you loved it. A new favorite in our house, too!
I love incorporating more beans into my meals, especially at lunch! Can’t wait to make this :)
I do, too! A little added protein punch plus lots of texture! Hope you enjoy, Brittany!
I love the idea of using it as a healthy “dip”. May have to do this one for a weekend of boating!
A weekend of boating sounds heavenly! I hope you enjoy this recipe – let me know if you end up trying it!
Mmmm, love me a jam-packed pita!
Thanks so much, Gaby!
This was fantastic! I had it for dinner over salad greens, and it was so good I seriously contemplated eating the remainder for breakfast the next morning. (I didn’t – saved it for dinner :) I left out the raisins because I don’t like them and it was amazing. Will make this again and again – easy, FAST, healthy, and delicious!
Danielle, YAY! I am so glad to hear it. Thanks so much for taking time to leave this lovely review too!
This recipe is a keeper!! I loved the golden raisins, celery and cashews…added lots of interesting texture and flavor. Thanks for the easy and delish vegetarian recipe :)
Melissa, I am so so happy to hear how much you loved this! Thanks for taking time to leave this fabulous review too. It means a lot!
Made this for lunch today and YUM! Subbed toasted sunflower seeds for the cashews and a little diced red onion for the green and it was perfect. Loaded a pita with arugula, tomato and the chickpea salad and went to town! Five stars from even my meat loving hubby!
Diana, I am so so sooo happy to hear this, thank you so much!
Loved it! Super easy and delicious. Thank you!
Leanne, I am so so happy you enjoyed it, thank you for letting me nkow!
Made this but didn’t have celery, green onions or raisins and couldn’t make it to the store. It was fantastic on pitas despite the omissions. My kids threw fits about it when they saw/smelled it but I made them try one bite and the night ended with everyone eating it happily. So much so that we were scooping up the leftovers with carrots. Once it was really gone, our four-year-old pleaded with me to let him lick the bowl. He emerged looking like Winnie- the-Pooh with chickpeas in his hair and asked me to make it for his birthday. This is a wonderful lunch/picnic option that will be high on our list from now on.
Rebekah, this makes me so so happy (and I’m cracking up at the Winnie-the-Pooh reference!). Thank you for letting me know what a hit this was. It means a lot!
This recipe is delicious, I made it over Summer and the whole family loved.
Thanks so much for reporting back, Cosette! I’m glad everyone loved it.