Chickpea Tuna Salad

5 from 4 votes

Here's how to make the best chickpea tuna salad with capers and/or pickles you'll ever meet. It's classic tuna salad with a few amplifications, and you'll never look back.

Prep Time10

Total Time10

Course: Beans + Lentils

Cuisine: American

Keyword: chickpea tuna salad

Calories: 264kcal

Author: Carolyn Gratzer Cope

Ingredients

2 15.5- ounce 439-gram cans chickpeas
3 ribs celery diced very small
1 medium shallot minced
2 tablespoons (30 grams) capers, minced
1 tablespoon minced fresh dill
1 tablespoon minced fresh tarragon
½ cup (120 grams) mayonnaise
2 tablespoons (30 ml) freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tablespoon (15 grams) dijon mustard
¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

Drain, rinse, and pat dry the chickpeas.
Place chickpeas into a large mixing bowl and mash with a potato masher until few to no whole beans remain, but there is still plenty of texture.
Add celery, shallot, capers, dill, and tarragon.
In a small mixing bowl, stir together mayonnaise, lemon juice, mustard, salt, and pepper, to form a smooth, creamy dressing.
Pour dressing over chickpeas and stir gently but thoroughly.

Notes

Canned chickpeas make this dish quick and easy, and they work great here. Here and pretty much everywhere, I like to use a brand that's full-flavored (including salt) and a little bit firmer in texture. You can cook your own chickpeas from dried, of course, if you like. The two cans in this recipe equal about 3 ½ cups of cooked chickpeas, from one heaping cup dried.
You can use a good-quality supermarket mayo, an easy homemade version, or an extra-savory option: Kewpie mayo. This Japanese brand is creamier, tangier, and more umami-fied than its American counterpart. Or, to make this recipe vegan, you can use your favorite vegan mayo.
If you can't get your hands on fresh dill and tarragon, you can use ½ teaspoon each dried.
This salad will keep well in an airtight container in the fridge for a week. Just give it a good stir before serving to reincorporate any ingredients that have settled to the bottom.

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