When I am going through a season of general busy, I need quick, easy, but still healthy meals that will carry me through. I mean, seriously there are times when I don’t even have the time with a jam packed calendar to make 3 square meals a day… and I’m a recipe developer and creator!
Lunch seems to be the meal I can be the quickest with and make the biggest impact when it comes to healthy plant based options. And one of my favorite prep once in less than 15 minutes, have ready for a 5 minute assembly later type of lunch is a beautiful smashed chickpea salad, no cook wrap. This version swaps the usual mayo (the with egg kind and the vegan kind) for a blended silken tofu dressing, which sounds like the kind of substitution that would turn out kinda gross, but surprise surprise – it actually works here! The lemon, garlic, nutritional yeast, and dijon do the heavy lifting flavor wise, the tofu just gives it body and a slight creaminess and you end up with something lighter than a mayo based salad but still creamy enough to hold everything together. Bonus by the way with the added protein situation, if you’re into tracking that kind of thing (like me!)
The method is basically: blend, smash, fold, wrap. You’re blending the tofu with lemon juice, dijon, and a little olive oil until it’s fully smooth (skip this step and you’ll get chunks of plain tofu or a weird graininess, and nobody wants that), then smashing your chickpeas with a fork or masher until they’re broken down but not pureed. Fold the dressing in, add your celery, red onion, and dill, and that’s the salad. Done. No stove, no timer, no reason to procrastinate on this one. If you want to keep it as authentic as possible, you can add in toasted pecans and sliced grapes, but that’s truly up to you if you want to!
I like to make a full batch of the chickpea salad at the start of the week and just build wraps as I need them, lettuce and cucumber or tomato going in fresh each time so nothing gets soggy waiting around. It holds up in the fridge for a few days, which is exactly the kind of low-effort insurance policy a busy week needs (truly!!!).
If you make these and share about it, I’d love for you to tag @herbyeater on TikTok or Instagram — I want to see your wraps!
Smashed No Cook Chickpea Salad Wrap
Equipment
- Blender or food processor
- Mixing bowl
- Fork or potato masher
- Cutting board
Ingredients
Tofu Base:
- 1 cup silken tofu drained (about 130g)
- 1 tbsp lemon juice 15ml
- 1 clove garlic
- 3 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1 tsp dijon mustard 5g
- 1 tsp olive oil 5ml
- celery salt (or regular salt) to taste
Chickpea Salad:
- 1 15 oz can chickpeas, drained (about 240g drained)
- 1 celery stalk finely diced (about 40g)
- 2 tbsp red onion minced (about 20g)
- 1 tbsp fresh dill chopped (about 3g)
For the Wraps:
- 4 large flour tortillas
- 1 cup lettuce or spring mix loosely packed (about 30g)
- 1 medium tomato (and/or 1/3 of a cucumber) sliced
Instructions
- Add the silken tofu, lemon juice, dijon mustard, nutritional yeast, garlic clove, and olive oil to a blender or food processor. Blend until completely smooth — make sure there are no lumps!
- Season the dressing with celery salt to taste, then set aside.
- Drain the chickpeas, dry them off, and add them to a mixing bowl.
- Smash the chickpeas with a fork or potato masher until mostly broken down, leaving some texture.
- Fold the tofu dressing into the smashed chickpeas until evenly coated.
- Add the celery, red onion, and dill, and stir to combine.
- Lay out the tortillas and divide the lettuce, cucumber, or tomato slices evenly among them.
- Spoon the chickpea salad on top, roll tightly, and slice in half.