Cranberry, Walnut, and Chickpea Salad

This creamy cranberry, walnut, and chickpea salad wins the prize for our best vegan chickpea salad yet! In less than 20 minutes, you too can experience divine pleasure in a packed sandwich, wrap, or just by the spoonful.

love at first bite

There is no doubt – we love chickpeas, and we love chickpea salads, but THIS one is our favorite so far. It has everything we love, a creamy dressing, sweet cranberries, crunchy celery, and walnuts, with a few scallions for good measure. What more could you want? Seriously, this is a must-try.

Pile this between 2 slices of your favorite bread, preferably homemade, and you have a cranberry walnut chickpea salad sandwich extraordinaire. If you can maintain bread restraint, make it open-faced. Or dollop it into a potato tortilla, wrap it up and move on down the road. Plan to stop for a bite before you get too far. This salad is equally delicious sitting on a bed of leafy greens.

Even if you don't regularly eat vegan sandwiches or plant-based is your exclusive, you can't go wrong with a quick and easy spread like this. The easy ingredients and simple dressing ingredients make this a big hit around our house.

ingredients

As promised, this is an easy one. I worked to pare down the ingredients for all the goodies in every bite with less fuss. Here's all you'll need:

Chickpeas – Your target is 3 cups of chickpeas (garbanzo beans) or 2–15-ounce cans (400 gm.). If you decide that you want to use another type of bean, be sure it is somewhat firm. My initial thinking is borlotti beans, although I've not tested this. Some prepared beans, such as cannelloni, are a bit mushy. If you cook them yourself, they might stand up a bit better.

Celery – Crunchy fresh celery serves as more than a filler. The natural salt helps to flavor the salad as well as provides a bit of texture.

Scallions – Scallions, green onions, or salad onions won't overpower this salad which is what we like. Use the white and green parts of the scallions and slice them thin.

I first tested this recipe with diced red onion and found them to be too strong. Another option could be shallots, although you might want to cut the amount by half or more and then add after you've blended everything.

Cranberries – Dried cranberries! I'd have them every day if I could. Recently, I started exploring different brands of dried cranberries and was dismayed to discover some of the bags contained added sugar and oil. That last one was a bit of a shocker, but it explains the shiny look and smooth feel of some dried cranberries as I compared them in packages at the store.

As always, we just need to be alert consumers if our aim is to eat foods with the lowest of additives we choose to avoid.

Walnuts – The crunchy satisfaction of walnuts is a willing complement for cranberry anything. Chop the walnuts small enough so that you make the most of ⅓ of a cup, but large enough that you know they're walnuts.

Vegan mayo – This is the one ingredient you'll want to plan for. I used homemade vegan mayo. If you wish to avoid cashews, you can make our recipe with sunflower seeds as well. You can also use a favorite commercial brand or your own recipe.

It's also possible to use homemade sour cream or commercial vegan sour cream. You may need to adjust the ingredients depending on the original flavor.

White balsamic vinegar – I swear, I can't get enough of this lovely, sweet and mellow vinegar. It doesn't overwhelm the flavor. Many recipes use apple cider vinegar for chickpea salad, but I find the mellower flavor of white balsamic complements the flavors of the other ingredients.

Lemon juice – Fresh lemon juice will give you the best of the zesty lemony flavor, but you can use a high-quality prepared lemon juice as well. I matched the amount of lemon juice and white balsamic; however, some of this will depend on the mayo you choose to use.

pro tips

• Making this recipe is straightforward and quick. Mix the dressing by combining the mayonnaise, white balsamic vinegar, and lemon juice. I have an old mustard jar that I dump the ingredients into and then give it a shake.
• The secret to creamy chickpea salads is simply to mash some or most of the chickpeas. This gives the dish a creamy texture.
• I used this method for any saucy chickpea recipe, from chickpea salad with fresh herbs to creamed chickpeas and mushrooms. Ir's pretty simple, use a potato masher or strong fork and pressed cooked chickpeas. Simple!
• I recommend avoiding a food processor to mash chickpeas. It's too easy to end up with something akin to hummus. That's not what we're building here.
• It's up to you to leave a few whole chickpeas, I usually do, but if I'm making wraps to go, I often mash them quite a bit. This keeps chickpeas from popping out of a wrap as you bite into them. Although there might be a time for launching a chickpea as someone, it's always best if we get to control the toss.

common questions

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