Growing up, a tuna fish sandwich was not my favorite thing to eat. My Mom loved them and made them quite often. Eventually, I started to like them.
We always had a huge garden. We did most of the garden work in the morning to avoid the Southern Arkansas Summertime heat. Mom would make the tuna fish salad the night before then it was ready for quick lunch. After working in the garden, a cool tuna sandwich with a large slice of fresh tomato was delicious.
As someone with gout, tuna is on the high-risk list. Since we are coming up on tomato season, I needed an alternative.
On Facebook, I learned that vegan tuna salad could be made from chickpeas. So I searched around and found lots of recipes that came close to satisfying the urge but were not quite right. Most did not have anything that tasted of the sea. That was easy to fix with some ground kelp powder.
Next up was the texture. In small batches chopping the chickpeas in the food processor rather than mashing helped, but it needed something else for mushiness. That is where the tofu comes in. Chopping extra firm tofu in the food processor and mixing the beans gets very close to texture.
Of course, you can use store-bought mayo, but homemade is best, and we will have liquid from the beans, so I made my own. For this, I made 1/3 of the recipe in my post http://jamesstrange.com/simple-vegan-egg-free-mayo/
It’s best to make the mayo ahead of time so that it will thicken up before using. But not absolutely required.
After you have the mayo in the fridge, use the food processor to chop up the chickpeas. Chop them up until they start to get mushy. My apartment-sized food processor is small, so I did it in two batches. Then chop up the extra firm tofu. I like using the extra firm, so I do not have to worry about water coming out of the tofu.
In a big bowl, add the chickpeas, tofu, mayo, kelp powder, and your other seasonings. To season mine, a Tablespoon of dijon mustard, a bit of white pepper, bread and butter pickles, and green onion. Since can chickpeas have lots of salt, I see no reason to add more.
With this recipe I am ready for vine ripe tomato season.
Ingredients
- 15 oz garbanzo beans 1 can
- 4 oz tofu I used extra firm
- 1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon kelp powder
- 1/8 teaspoon white pepper
- 1/4 cup pickles I used bread and butter
- 1 each green onion
Mayo
- 1/4 cup oil neutral flavored
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1.5 Tablespoons aquafaba From the canned beans
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon vinegar or leamon juice
Instructions
- Drain the liquid from the garbanzo beans / chickpeas. Save the liquid. Some of it will be used to make the mayo.
- Make the mayoTo a tall vessel add neutral flavored oil, dijon mustard, 1.5 Tablespoons of the liquid saved from the beans, salt and vinegar. Use an immersion blender on high to make an emulsion. Place in the refrigerator until chilled.
- Use a food processor to chop up the garbanzo beans and the tofu.
To the beans and tofu add dijon mustard, kelp powder, pepper, pickles and onion. Mix to combine.
