Easy Chickpea Tuna Salad
Blog #103: During the summer months I tend to crave lighter and refreshing dishes. Having a light meal usually consists of easy prepping since there is either fruits or vegetables involved. This chickpea tuna salad is one of those light meals that do not require any cooking!
Chickpeas AKA Garbanzo Beans
Chickpeas are also known as garbanzo beans. They provide a load of health benefits from helping with digestion, high in protein and have lots of fiber. It makes for a good substitution for meat. Which is why I added the chickpeas to this salad. I wanted to make it extra filling but yet a light dish.
Some Benefits:
- High Protein
- High Fiber
- Healthy Blood Sugar Control
- Minerals – such as magnesium and potassium
Tuna
Tuna also has great benefits on top of being affordable! There are also so many different dishes to make. Pasta salads, tuna and capers, tuna melts (see below), casseroles and more! Martha Stewart has an awesome tuna caper open sandwich, which is amazing!
Some benefits of eating tuna:
- Heart Healthy
- Lowers Blood Pressure
- Improves your Immune System
- Gives you Energy
Ingredients
For this recipe you will need:
- Chickpeas, AKA garbanzo beans
- Can of tuna
- Celery
- Onion
- Yellow and/or Orange Pepper
- Feta cheese
- Fresh cilantro
- Dried oregano
- Salt
- Pepper
- Lime
- Mayonnaise
- Spinach
- Olive Oil
To give it some color, I used half an orange and yellow pepper. I also used a little bit of mayo to help moisten the tuna a bit more. Even though I used olive oil. I could have used tuna packed in oil but I wanted to control the amount of oil in the dish.
Leftovers
I had some leftovers and so I decided to make a tuna melt. I had about a cup and it was just enough for one sandwich. Sourdough or a nice crunch bread would have made this even better. However, all I had was white sandwich bread. I buttered the bread, added the leftover chickpea tuna and a slice of american cheese. I then grilled it on both sides for a few minutes until lightly toasted. It turned out to be very delicious.
Chickpea Tuna Salad
Course: Lunch/DinnerCuisine: AmericanDifficulty: Easy4
servings20
minutesThe perfect summer meal for a light lunch or dinner without any cooking!
Ingredients
1 cup of chickpeas (Garbanzo beans)
16 oz of white albacore tuna, in water
1/2 cup of celery, finely chopped
1/4 cup of onion, finely chopped
1 cup of pepper, finely chopped (I used orange and yellow for color)
1/4 cup feta cheese, crumbled or cubed
1 cup of fresh cilantro, roughly chopped
1 1/2 lime, juiced
Olive Oil
1/2 tbsp of dried oregano
Salt
Pepper
1 tbsp of Mayo
4 cups of spinach
- Serves 4
Directions
- In a large bowl break up the tuna into small pieces, as much as possible. Mix in the the chickpeas, celery, onion, peppers and cilantro.
- Mix in the mayo and season with salt and pepper. Add the oregano and lime juice.
- Drizzle with olive oil and mix, about 2-3 tbsps
- To serve, plate a handful of spinach and season with salt and pepper. Add some chickpea tuna salad and drizzle with some more olive oil!
Notes
- Extra virgin olive oil gives it even more flavor compared to mild olive oil
So here you have it. One recipe and two meals! Let me know what you think of both meals!
Enjoy!
This sounds delicious, satisfying, and refreshing with the lime juice. And, of course, I love the leftover remake! ~Actually have all the ingredients, will try tomorrow! Thanks for sharing
I am so glad! Let me know what you think ?
OOh yummy! I love tuna and chickpea so will be trying both of these for lunch this week. Thank you.
I’m so glad!
I made this salad yesterday. Delicious. It will now be a favourite lunch. Thank you for the recipe x
I am so glad you enjoyed it!