This Vegan Chickpea “Tuna” Salad is creamy, tangy, and packed with nutrients, the perfect quick and easy plant-based lunch!
Vegan Chickpea Tuna Salad
I’ve been getting requests for more vegetarian high-protein meals, and this one was a hit! If you love a good tuna salad but want a plant-based twist that’s just as satisfying, this Vegan Chickpea “Tuna” Salad is about to be your new go-to. Packed with protein, fiber, and all the creamy, tangy goodness of a classic tuna salad, this version swaps out the canned tuna for canned chickpeas—no cooking required! It’s quick, simple, and excellent for meal prep, sandwiches, or scooping straight from the bowl. The flavors get better as it sits! And if you’re looking for the real deal tuna, try my Chickpea Tuna Salad, Tuna Pasta Salad without mayo, and Tuna Egg Salad.
Why You’ll Love This Vegan Mock Tuna Salad
I love chickpeas because they are high in protein and fiber. Using them in this salad with zesty pepperoncini, capers, lemon, and mayo surprisingly made it taste similar to tuna salad. I will be making it many more times in the future!
- Fast & Easy: No cooking required—just mash, mix, and enjoy!
- Great For Meal Prep: Lasts up to 5 days and the flavors get better as it sits.
- Versatile: Use it in sandwiches, wraps, salads, or even as a dip with crackers or veggies.
- Dietary Restrictions: It’s naturally dairy-free, egg-free, vegan, vegetarian, and can be made gluten-free by choosing the right bread or crackers.
If you make this healthy vegan chickpea tuna salad recipe, I would love to see it. Tag me in your photos or videos on Instagram, TikTok, or Facebook. And be sure to join the Skinnytaste Community to see what everyone’s cooking!
What You’ll Need
Here are the ingredients for this easy vegan chickpea tuna salad. See the recipe card below for the exact measurements.
- Chickpeas (also called garbanzo beans) are an affordable source of protein and fiber that require minimal prep. Just drain and rinse!
- Vegetables: Diced red onion and celery add crunch.
- Tangy Elements: Pepperoncini (and its juice) and capers add a tangy component.
- Dill: This fresh herb perfectly complements the pepperoncini and capers.
- Vegan Chickpea Salad Dressing: Lemon zest and juice, vegan mayonnaise, salt, and pepper
How to Make Vegan Chickpea Tuna Salad
While you do have to pull out the food processor for the garbanzo beans, the rest is super simple. Just mix it all together! See the recipe card at the bottom for printable directions.
- Mash the Chickpeas: Add the beans to a food processor and pulse until they’re chopped but still have texture.
- Mix Everything: Add chickpeas and all the other ingredients to a bowl and stir to combine.
Variations
- Onions: Swap red onion with shallot.
- Mayo: If you don’t mind if the salad isn’t vegan, use regular mayonnaise.
- Don’t like capers? Use kalamata olives.
- Herbs: Use dried dill or substitute it with fresh chives, parsley, or oregano.
Serving Suggestions
- Chickpea Tuna Salad Sandwich: Sandwich it between 2 slices of your favorite bread or serve it open-faced on sourdough toast. Add some sliced tomatoes, lettuce, or Dijon mustard.
- Low-Carb: Wrap it in endive or lettuce leaves or top a bed of romaine with a scoop of chickpea salad.
- Snack: Eat it by the spoonful or as a dip with veggies and crackers.
Storage
Refrigerate this vegan tuna salad for up to 5 days and eat the leftovers cold.
More Chickpea Salad Recipes You’ll Love
For more lunch ideas using chickpeas, check out these five delicious chickpea salad recipes to inspire your next meal!
- Chickpea Egg Salad
- Greek Chickpea Salad
- Grilled Chicken Chickpea Salad
- Chickpea Salad with Cucumbers and Tomatoes
- Buffalo Chickpea Salad
Vegan Chickpea Tuna Salad
Ingredients
- 2 15-ounce cans chickpeas, rinsed, drained and dried
- ⅓ cup red onion, finely diced, from ¼ of a red onion
- ⅓ cup celery, finely diced
- ¼ cup jarred pepperoncini, dried and chopped
- 2 teaspoons pepperoncini juice
- 1 tablespoon fresh dill, chopped
- 1 tablespoon capers, drained and roughly chopped
- ½ teaspoon lemon zest
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- ⅓ cup light vegan mayonnaise, such as Reduced Fat Vegenaise or mayo of choice
- ½ teaspoon Kosher salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
Optional for serving:
- sourdough toast
- sliced tomatoes, lettuce
Instructions
- Add the chickpeas to a food processor bowl fitted with the blade attachment. Pulse until they’re chopped but still have texture, about 6-12 times. Transfer the chickpeas to a mixing bowl. Add the onion, celery, chopped pepperoncini and their juice, dill, capers, lemon zest, lemon juice, and mayonnaise to the bowl and stir to combine. Season with ½ teaspoon salt.
- To serve, spoon the salad onto toast, this can also be served in lettuce cups or however you like to eat tuna salad. Makes 3 1/2 cups.
Light but filling. Easy to pull together and great on sourdough toast
Delicious! It was a hit with vegetarian and non-vegetarians alike.
This is absolutely fabulous. Easy and delicious, and I can bring it to work without the fishy smell. Kalamata olives would be a great addition to this as well.
It was easy and really tasty! Also very versatile, I served it like a wrap with lettuce but also on slice of cucumbers amazing bites. Thank you again for a great recipe.
I made this for dinner tonight and it is delicious. I topped it with a little fat free feta cheese and kalamata olives and rolled it into a low carb tortilla with lettuce. Makes a great burrito filling.
thank you, Gina!
You’re welcome! 🙂
Delicious! I used tuna in olive oil and left out the peppericinis
My husband who is not a big vegetarian fan absolutely adored this. There are so many fun things you could do to change it around, I liked yogurt, eggs(for an ovo vegetarian), olives. I love it.
What can I use otherchickpeas?
Tuna? Salmon? Or what about some other kind of white bean?
So tasty! Better than my boring version of tuna salad. Will definitely make again. Even my 10-year-old liked it.
Love it! Just made it and tried it out by the spoonful and now thinking of ways to enjoy it further. Yummy!!😋
I made this today not really thinking it would actually taste like tuna but it did! I used regular mayo since I’m not vegan. This is so tasty and I’m obsessed now as I don’t really like canned tuna anymore but loved it as a snack. This will be my go to now.
Perfect!
Made this twice so far. Second time used one can of beans and two cans of tuna in EVOO. Chef’s Kiss 🤤
I absolutely love this! It has the Tuna Salad taste without the “tuna breath” afterwards.
Love this new recipe. Making for the second time and I have to substitute jarred jalapeno (mild enough) for the pepperoncini as I used up my last bit. I hope it turns out ok…love the dill in there and I used part low-fat and regular mayo but I think I’ll try greek yogurt this round
Vegans and non-vegans will LOVE this recipe. So easy and tasty.
I had been making a recipe using Nori (it was so time consuming) for about four years. Suffice it to say, this recipe is the gold standard! Thank you, Gina, for making a recipe that is vegan friendly. Yummy!
Thanks Ann!
Might be a silly question but is there a substitution for mayo (vegan or not)? I can’t eat it for personal reasons and was wondering if something else can be used in its place.
Why don’t you try a full fat yogurt?
Good tip, thank you! 🙂
Thank you for the yoghurt suggestion
Mashed up/ creamy avocado might be a good option too!
Wow thanks! I love avocados so that may work! 😊
This was very good. I did use olives in place of capers and added a lot more fresh dill. It was better the second day and next time will cut mayo to 1/4 of a cup. I have been looking for a healthy vegan tuna salad recipe and glad to have found it. Served as a wrap with avacado, broccoli sprouts , and a bit of jalapeño sauce
This was excellent! Very flavorful and easy to make. I like the fact that is was filling yet low WW points.
So sorry to be that person but genuinely curious if anyone has any suggestions for a chickpea substitute. I am vegetarian and allergic to chickpeas…. Trying to think of a good substitute
Maybe white beans? The texture will change though.
I love it with navy beans. I don’t like chick peas. Tried but not good.b
Love the vegan recipes! I make so many of the vegetarian ones vegan, so it was great not to alter anything! Thank you!
Delicious!
I was a little hesitant to try, but this is absolutely delicious
So glad you tried it!
This was very tasty. Will be on lunch rotation. Next time I’ll add salt at the end to see how much is needed as the pepperoncini was salty. Thanks for another great recipe Gina!
Glad you liked it!
This salad is very tasty and filling. I didn’t feel like using my food processor
I used a pastry blender instead. It worked really well, was super easy to clean up.
The pastry blender was a great idea! I’ll try it tomorrow. 🙂
I tried your suggestion for the pastry blender. Worked very well in a bowl with the chickpeas and no food processor to wash!
Salad is so good.
Super good. Dill makes it even better. Another keeper Gina@
Terrific, and I appreciate another vegetarian recipe. A favorite and will do often. I didn’t have pepperoncini so used as suggested in chat-something briny so used pickle and something a bit of heat–used some canned mild green chili’s. We loved it. Thanks
A favorite, makes a great sandwich or snack. Appreciate more vegetarian recipes. I didn’t have pepperoncini so as suggested in Skinnytaste chat–subbed some pickle for something briny and also some mild green chili peppers ( canned ones) for a bit of a kick. Really like this a lot.
You did not show anything about Tuna being added or even in the ingredients
It’s vegan – no animal or fish products in the ingredients. It’s mock tuna salad.
It’s a vegan recipe, hence why the “tuna” is in quotation marks. It’s a dupe for those of us that do not eat animals 🙂
It’s a vegan alternative to a traditional tuna salad. Just add your favorite canned tuna! I love chickpeas and tuna, so that’s how I make it! ; )