Chickpea of the sea salad

I've heard of this so many times and finally today I decided to try it: chickpea of the sea! It's supposed to be like tuna fish which of course it isn't exactly but it totally satisfies that tuna salady lunchtime craving. My mom loved it and she isn't a vegetarian so it passed the non-veg test. We sat outside and ate at our new table with the umbrella up and it was a perfect way to spend a relaxing lunchtime.

I got the recipe from this site after doing a lot of online searching for recipes for the salad. I just googled "chickpea of the sea" and this was the first one that came up. After looking at the others I thought this would be a good fit. I was right! Feel free to add or sub anything you prefer. I added some diced dill pickles to it- yum! I bet it would be really good with some diced apples or raisins.

Ingredients:

1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1/4 cup vegenaise
1 Tbs whole grain mustard
1 1/2 Tbs umebochi vinegar (gives it a sea-like taste but you can use regular vinegar instead)
2 tsp celery seeds
1/4 cup chopped celery (about one rib)
2 Tbs sliced scallions (about 2 scallions)
1 slice dill pickle, diced
cracked black pepper to taste
pinch of cayenne pepper (optional)

1. Place chickpeas in the bowl of a food processor and pulse two or three times to roughly chop. Alternatively, you can put the chickpeas in the bowl and mash them until they are mashed but with still pieces left. Add remaining ingredients and pulse two or three more times to incorporate.

2. Serve however you'd like! We had ours over a piece of Ezekiel bread, toasted with a side of tomato and lettuce. It would be excellent in a lettuce wrap- maybe next time!