Makes 4 melts – Serves 2 people – 20 minutes prep time – 15 minutes cook time
“I’m on a seafood diet – I see food, and I eat it.”
Vegan Chickpea Tuna Melts: A Video How To
I’m going to show you how to make these delicious, vegan chickpea tuna melts. Are you prepared?
Chickpea Tuna Melts
Equipment
- Food Processor
- Oven broiler
- Baking Sheet
Ingredients
- 1 (15-ounce) can of chickpeas, a.k.a. garbanzo beans, drained, rinsed, and dried
- ½ teaspoon olive oil
- ¼ teaspoon dried thyme
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- ½ cup pistachios, roughly chopped
- Sheet of dried seaweed, finely chopped (optional)
- ⅓ cup vegan mayo, like Veganaise
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
- 1 teaspoon vegan Worchestire sauce
- ½ yellow onion, diced
- 2 dill pickles, diced
- 2 sweet pickles, diced
- 2 English muffins, store-bought
- Bit of vegan butter, like Earth Balance
- Sprinkle of garlic powder
- 2 slices of vegan cheese, like Chao
Instructions
- Drain, rinse, and dry the canned chickpeas. Then, in a skillet over medium heat, lightly toast them for 3 minutes in the olive oil, seasoning with thyme and sea salt, until they begin to turn tender and creamy.
- Transfer the chickpeas to a food processor and add the roughly chopped pistachios (as well as the dried sheet of seaweed, if you wish). Pulse a couple times, until there are no whole chickpeas left (photos for reference below).
- Transfer the chickpea mixture to a medium bowl, and add to it the mayo, lemon juice, nutritional yeast, Worchestire sauce, yellow onion, and pickles. Mix well until everything is incorporated.
- Set your oven to broil. On a baking sheet, halve your english muffins into 4 single muffin halves. Butter them and garnish with a tiny bit of garlic powder. Broil the muffins for a couple minutes, until they begin to turn a light golden brown. Watch them carefully.
- Take out your muffins, and load them high with chickpea tuna melt batter. Return it to the broiler for another another couple minutes, until the tops begin to brown.
- Remove the chickpea tuna melts from the oven one last time, and top each with a half slice of vegan cheese. Return to the broiler to let the cheese melt, about a minute or two.
Video
Nutrition
Here’s Why You Ought To Make It
Because it’s fun and whimsical and well, tasty. This is the kind of vegan food that everyone can get behind!
Give it a go!
Plain ol’ chickpea tunafish sandwiches were the first food thing that I ever made for myself, vegan or otherwise, and out of the cookbook, Isa Does It. It was easy and low-steaks, so to speak. Overall, it opened my eyes and tastebuds to the true creative potential of vegan cooking.
By the way, if you’re looking for a good first vegan cookbook, or for a gift for your vegan nephew or niece (nudge, nudge), Isa Does It is an excellent choice. I highly recommend it.
Why is it called, “tuna” if it isn’t actually tunafish?
I called this tuna because that’s what I modeled the taste and texture after. People can relate more to the idea of tunafish than anything else. If instead I called it, “Pistachio-Chickpea Mash on an English Muffin,” I don’t think as many people could envision themselves eating that.
Something’s fishy here..
In all honesty, I have never been a seafoodie. Even before adopting a plant-based diet or considering all the ethical and environmental implications, never would I have eaten anything lugged out of the salty, fathomless blue depths of the oceans. But with all that said, I must admit that I remember there was something rather alluring about the taste and texture of tunafish that didn’t completely repel me.
The taste, that “fishiness” as some people commonly describe it, is actually not a fish taste at all. I learned that what people describe as fishy is actually the taste of algae and seaweed. So in reality, it’s the fish that taste “seaweed-y,” not the other way around. You are what you eat, right?
And because of this, there is the option in this recipe to add a sheet of nori. It’s an acquired taste, so feel free to ignore the suggestion. For a bit of whimsy, just add it and see what happens.
“We are not here in this world to drift like seaweed. Whatever intelligence we have, it is our duty to drive to the utmost.” – Blanche Willis Howard
So if seaweed can help achieve that classic seafood flavor, then how can we achieve a similar texture to tunafish? One thing I have learned in my experience cooking vegan food is that the answer to that question and many others, 90% of the time, is going to be: chickpeas.
The Answer is Always Chickpeas
The chickpea is the most versatile, varied, and vibrant bean in existence. It can be creamy and velvety, crispy and crunch, puffed and fluffy. I’m sure you’ve heard of and tried hummus before – chickpeas again. You can use the flour to make delicious gluten-free recipes or as a binder for batters and baked goods. Dried chickpeas soaked overnight in water make the best-ever falafel. Heck, you can even use the preserving liquid in the can, called aquafaba, to make eggless meringues!
And best yet, they’re inexpensive, high in protein, and filling.
In my opinion, the best kind of canned chickpeas to use in this vegan chickpea tuna melt are S&W Garbanzos!
For the cozy chickpea tuna melt, we’re going to use canned chickpeas. The key to cooking with canned beans of any kind is to rinse them well. This is important because first, it helps alleviate some of that tinny can flavor, and second, it helps alleviate an excess of…well, flatulence. Sometimes vulgarity and truth are one and the same. So if not for your sake, then for the people you live with, always wash the canned beans well.
Toasting chickpeas is always a good option, even as a garnish on top of a salad. In this case, I wanted them to be creamy and unctuous, so toasting for 3 to 5 minutes in a little bit of oil usually does the trick.
Pulsing the chickpeas with the pistachios is a great way to add more body to the overall texture of this vegan chickpea tuna melt. Pistachios are also reasonably hearty and rich, so the combination is wonderful.
Add all your other ingredients to the pulsed vegan chickpea tuna melt mixture, and mix with a rubber spatula until everything is coated well. The Worchestire sauce should turn it that signature beige of canned tuna.
Vegan Worchestire sauce may be hard to find, depending on your location and the variety, or lack thereof, of markets around where you live. For reference, this is the one I used (image below). It doesn’t state it’s vegan, but it doesn’t have anchovies in it, so it just happens to made from plants. It adds a great funk to this vegan chickpea tuna melt.
Time to broil the muffins. If you don’t have a broil setting, you can toast your muffins in a toaster, and then bake the vegan chickpea tuna melts in a warm oven (375 degrees Fahrenheit) for a couple minutes. That should do the trick.
Once it’s nice and golden brown and bubbling, then on with the cozy chickpea tuna melt mixture. Broil that and heat it through, and then lastly the vegan cheese (I used chao – not sponsored – I wish).
And voilà – cozy vegan chickpea tuna melts!
Leave a comment and recipe rating before you go. I’d love to hear what you have to say about these cozy (and vegan) chickpea tuna melts.
May you have good food in good company,
That Vegan Nephew
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Oh my – this looks delicious! I’ve had – and loved – the garbanzos subbed for tuna before and l can’t wait to try it with the pistachios and the nori! And the melt on top! Really enjoy all the information about the ingredients . Great site – looking forward to more recipes!
I love cooking with dry beans so I started with the chickpeas in my pressure cooker, garlic of course. Had to make due with walnuts substituting for pistachios, but the final product was still delicious! The lemon in this recipe is a standout. Enjoyed the blog, too.
Hello,
I love dried chickpeas! I imagine they would’ve been particularly good in this.
Thanks for the comment – hope you’re both well!