The New Tuna

As a child, I never liked tuna. My parents would make tuna salad by mixing together cans of tuna with, you guessed it, miracle whip. I never got past the smell. I think if macaroni noodles were mixed into a tuna salad at a potluck or shared meal, I probably dealt with it, because macaroni. But overall, tuna was a no-no for me growing up.

Isa, in her book, Isa Does It, and I think in her other books too, talks about how she misses tuna sandwiches. This chickpea tuna salad places tuna power back into her own hands and reminds us all that vegans don't have to miss anything. I normally wouldn't jump to try a recipe that mocks a dish I never used to like, but I found myself with all (most) of the ingredients on hand and no desire to go the store for new ones, and I made this.

It doesn't photograph especially well, and I just ate it on some pumpernickel toast, but it's super good! As you know, I have a surplus of chickpeas on hand, and I had some celery leftover from chowder. No carrots were available, and it calls for sunflower seeds, but I didn't have any not in the shell, so I left them out. I chopped up a cucumber and threw that in for any missing crunch the carrots would have provided. I also mashed an avocado in there. I used half chipotle vegenaise, the other half pesto vegenaise. I always have 4 different kinds of vegenaise in my fridge. That's totally normal, right?