Garbanzo "Salad"

Quite some time ago, I purchased a case of garbanzo beans (aka chickpeas) and having to find a way to consume 24 cans by myself in a fairly reasonable period of time got me sampling a lot of recipes. One of the ones I came across was for something which is commonly called "chickpea of the sea". This recipe is used by vegetarians to simulate the nature of a tuna salad sandwich without having to include the tuna.

Since I'm not a vegetarian, I'm not really concerned with emulating tuna, but I did like the basic idea of using garbanzo beans as a sandwich spread. I played with the original recipe and abandoned the more expensive and esoteric elements and came up with something which personally suited my tastes better. This is now one of my favorite sandwich fillings and inspired me to buy yet another case of garbanzo beans just so that I'd always have some on hand for making this and hummus.

One of the great things about this recipe is that there is a good chance that you can make it with food you tend to have on hand. It isn't likely to require a trip to the store for special ingredients. You can make this with white or green onions. The white onions will lend a milder flavor to the salad.

This works well both as a dip and served on bland crackers or as a sandwich filling. I especially like it on whole wheat bread with thinly-sliced tomatoes, but find it also goes well with Triscuits and other whole grain crackers. This makes 3 generous servings or 4 small ones.

Garbanzo "Salad" (low-fat, vegetarian):

1 can (cooked) garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
2 tbsp. reduced fat mayonnaise
2 tbsp. yogurt cheese (plain yogurt that has been drained)
1/2 cup chopped green onion (or 1/3 cup chopped white onion)
1/2 tsp. whole grain mustard
1 tsp. rice or other white/yellow vinegar
salt, pepper, garlic powder (to taste, about 1/4 tsp. each)
red pepper flakes (to taste, optional)

1. Place the drained and rinsed garbanzo beans in a small bowl food processor and pulse until they are coarsely chopped. 
2. Add the onions to the top of the beans, then the mayo and yogurt followed by the remaining ingredients. 
3. Pulse the food processor until blended, but still coarse. Stir with a spatula between pulses for even processing.

Nutrition information courtesy of the SparkRecipes calculator:

4 servings:

3 servings: