Chickpea Artichoke Sandwich with Simple Salad

When flipping through my most recent Vegetarian Times magazine, I found a fabulous chickpea and artichoke sandwich filler recipe that I tore out immediately. It’s been sitting on our kitchen table all week, so I put the recipe into action for dinner the other night. As usual, I made some slight alterations: I didn’t use chopped onion or minced garlic since I don’t like them raw, and don’t have Old Bay spice. I also dialed down the soy mayonnaise and upped the celery and chopped (yellow) pepper. I’m trying not to completely re-post someone else’s original recipes on my blog, but I couldn’t find the recipe on their website, so hope Vegetarian Times isn’t mad at me.

• 1 16oz jar artichoke hearts packed in water, drained
• 1 12oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 1/4 cup chopped onion
• 1/4 cup chopped cornichons (French baby pickles)
• 1/4 cup chopped green bell pepper
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh celery
• 1/4 cup vegan mayonnaise
• 2t olive oil
• 1t capers
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 tsp seafood seasoning, such as Old Bay
• 1 t Dijon mustard

Pulse all ingredients in a food processor until chunky. Season with S & P. Chill at least 30 minutes.

This spread had the look and consistency of chicken salad but the flavors were bursting with artichokes, capers, and little pickles. It had a little sour and salty bite with crunch from the sweet yellow pepper. I loved this recipe and had it for lunch and dinner with enough leftovers to spare for our dinner tonight.

I simply stuffed the filling into a whole wheat pita and paired it with a side salad of heirloom tomatoes, sliced carrots, and sliced baby cucumbers. I dressed the salad with some olive oil, sea salt and pepper. As I sat down to eat, I thought of my Grandma Sophie. I still remember years ago…at least 15 years ago…she was making us a “salad” to have with dinner. I told her she was not making salad, since there was no lettuce! Grandma knows best and she told me you don’t have to have lettuce for it to be a salad. I smiled as I enjoyed my simple salad, sans lettuce. Grandma Sophie was also the first to introduce me to chickpeas when I was young, which are by far my favorite legumes. I know she would have loved this meal as much as I did.