FatFree Vegan Kitchen

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Sea-sational Chickpea Salad

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This vegan tuna salad gets its light “sea” flavor from the sea vegetable arame. Silken tofu adds creaminess without a lot of fat.

Sea-sational Chickpea Salad (Vegan "Tuna" Salad): This vegan tuna salad gets its light sea flavor from the sea vegetable arame. #vegan #wfpb #zeropoints

Eaten any good algae lately?  Chances are you have, even if you didn’t know it.

Algae, or sea vegetables, are used as stabilizers or thickeners in everything from mayo to ice cream, and even if you avoid processed foods, you’ve probably enjoyed sushi wrapped up in nori or miso soup flavored with wakame.  But if you aren’t a fan, there are several good reasons to start developing a taste for them.

Besides providing the “broadest range of minerals of any food,” sea vegetables contain phytonutrients called lignans that protect against cancer, iodine that promotes healthy thyroid function, and folic acid that prevents birth defects and heart disease.  But perhaps the best reason to eat them is for the unique flavor and texture they add to dishes.

arame

For me, a little bit of “sea”soning goes a long way.  I can’t stand food with a strong fishy taste, so I use sea vegetables very carefully and have come to know which ones are mild and which ones can be overpowering if misused.  (I once had to triple the liquid in a miso soup because the wakame I sprinkled in too generously made it too fishy to eat.)  I’m very careful with hijiki and wakame and even know which brands of nori will be too strong, but I’ve found that I can’t add too much arame.

If you’re just learning to cook with sea vegetables, arame is a good one to start with.  It has a much milder taste than other seaweeds, and its long, thin strands rehydrate in just five minutes.  Arame adds a delicate flavor and interesting texture to burgers, “crab” cakes, or salads, like this one, and once it’s rehydrated, it can be stir-fried along with other vegetables or used as a garnish on salads, sandwiches or just about anything.  Try it in this vegan “tuna” salad, and feel free to add more if you like your salad to taste more “tuna-y.”

Sea-Sational Chickpea Salad (Vegan "Tuna" Salad)

Sea-sational Chickpea Salad (Vegan "Tuna" Salad)
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5 from 5 votes
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Sea-sational Chickpea Salad

Arame adds a light “sea” taste to the salad. For a more pronounced flavor, use more arame or add a little powdered kelp or dulse. You can also grind sushi nori to a powder in your blender and use it instead of or in addition to the arame, but start small and add more to taste.
Course Salad, Sandwich
Cuisine American, Vegan
Keyword vegan tuna salad
Prep Time 15 minutes
Total Time 15 minutes
Servings 5 1/3-cup servings
Author Susan Voisin

Ingredients

  • 1 tablespoon organic arame* crushed between fingers slightly (about 3 grams)
  • 1/2 cup silken tofu* lite preferred
  • 15 ounces cooked chickpeas (1 can or about 1 3/4 cups, drained)
  • 1/2 cup coarsely chopped carrots
  • 1 rib celery chopped
  • 1 teaspoon Old Bay Seasoning
  • 1/2 teaspoons smoked paprika
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt or to taste

Instructions

  • Break the arame into smaller pieces before measuring. Rinse it in a strainer and place it in a small bowl. Add just enough water to cover and soak for 5 minutes. Drain (reserve the soaking water, if you like, and add it to the salad) and set aside.
  • Combine the tofu and half the chickpeas in a food processor and pulse several times to mash all of the chickpeas well. Add remaining chickpeas and the carrots and pulse once or twice to roughly chop. Scrape into a bowl and add all remaining ingredients, including reserved arame. Cover and chill for at least half an hour to allow the flavors to blend. Check seasonings, adding more to taste. 
  • Serve with raw vegetables or as a sandwich filling.

Notes

*Because of the possibility of pollution of ocean waters, I recommend using only certified organic sea vegetables.

* For a soy-free version, try using my MiracleNaise recipe.

Variations

For an old-fashioned Southern flavor, try adding a couple tablespoons of sweet pickle relish.
Each serving is zero Smart Points on Weight Watchers Freestyle program.
Nutrition Facts
Sea-sational Chickpea Salad
Amount Per Serving
Calories 165 Calories from Fat 23
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 2.5g 4%
Saturated Fat 0g 0%
Sodium 329mg 14%
Potassium 341mg 10%
Total Carbohydrates 26g 9%
Dietary Fiber 7g 28%
Sugars 5g
Protein 9.5g 19%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

Nutritional info is approximate.

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Comments

  1. Gosh darnit, Susan, this looks delicious. The last meat I ever at back in ’72 was tuna (I had to spit it out because it tasted wrong, as a new vegetarian. I knew then I could never turn back to being a meat eater.) You cannot get either arame or Old Bay Seasoning here in the wilderness. I have wakame, nori, kombu…and have been carrying them around for YEARS hoping someone would be interested…

    Reply

  2. I love arame–it’s absolutely my favorite sea veggie–and I an just taste how delicious this salad must be! I love how the chickpeas and tofu together are used as a kind of mayo/binder, too. 🙂

    Reply

  4. I have arame but I don’t use it very much, sometimes with edamame. More often I eat kombu or wakame with a miso soup. I make a broth for miso with kombu soaked in water and I also try not to use a lot of sea vegetables because their strong flavor might bother me sometimes.

    Reply

    • a macrobiotic cooking teacher gave me the sea-veggie tip of a life time — use fresh ginger — it neutralizes the fishy taste — works every time! bon apetite!

      Reply

  5. Yum! This looks amazing but alas, all I have ever had is the sheets of nori in a veggie roll. I may have to venture out a bit to find such yummies now. Question — How does one keep these items, in the refrigerator, pantry shelf, and what is the general shelf life of such items?

    Reply

    • Since they’re dried, they’ll keep almost indefinitely if you keep them sealed tightly. Plus, you can find them in bulk at natural food stores, allowing you to just buy a little at a time.

      Reply

  6. Hi Sue:
    This recipe sounds very good! I’m definitely going to try it. Can you tell me about your MyPoints program you use to do the nutritional analysis of your recipes and where it is found?
    Thanks,
    Carin

    Reply

    • Carin, I use a program called Living Cookbook that enables you to set a formula to use when calculating points. The Weight W@tchers’ formula is patented, but if you search you can find it online and use it to figure out the points as long as you know the number of calories, fat grams, and fiber in a serving.

      Reply

  8. I really want to incorporate more sea vegetables into my diet and I’ve found that the Asian grocer down the street stocks quite a bit of it- problem is all the labels are in Japanese or Korean. And well, dried sea veggies can look an awful lot like dried parts of animals or other weird things.

    Reply

  13. Made this for dinner tonight. After the first bite, my 15 year old son (not a vegan), said, “Hey, this is like tuna salad!” Both kids and DH loved it. We made sandwiches with it and slices of garden tomatoes and cucumbers…a really good, quick and easy weeknight dinner. It was a little thin to put on a school-lunch sandwich (it would goop out the side), but for a sandwich at the dinner table it was perfect. We’re having it again soon.
    Nice job!
    Ms_Min

    Reply

  15. Made this last night and just had it for lunch today — AMAZING. I’ve been missing tuna salad so this hit the spot. I used Wakame instead of Arame because I already had some at home. I didnt have smoked paprika or old bay seasoning so instead I used spike, salt, lots of black pepper and some cayenne.

    So delicious, I cant thank you enough for sharing this!

    Reply

  17. Hi Susan..I just wanted to check first, is 1/2 C of the tofu equal to half a package of the silken tofu? Or would it be more like a 1/3 of the block? Thanks!

    Reply

  18. The dish looks great and I was wondering if is it possible to use a term other than ‘birth defects’. It implies that people with disabilities are “defective” and that’s kind of offensive. How about ‘birth disabilities’ instead? It’s clear and direct without being demeaning. Thanks!

    Reply

  21. Thanks for the link. Your recipe is such a creative combination of flavors, I don’t think I ever would have thought to mix arame and Old Bay!

    Reply

  22. Sounds yummy! I love chickpeas and have chickpea “faux tuna salad” at least once a week if not every day 🙂 I’ve just started using nori (broken unto pieces) and like the more real fish flavor it gives. You have such beautiful photography on here!

    Reply

  23. thanks for sharing this recipe. i really love it. i tried it once and i can’t wait to have it again. everyone should have to try this. it’s healthy food. good for everyone. enjoy! 🙂

    Reply

  24. I’ve been enjoying your delightful recipes for months. For a person who follows the Ornish plan to keep cholesterol in check, your site is perfect. High time I expressed some appreciation. I’ve had some nori languishing on a shelf for months, so I used that instead of arame. I hadn’t seen your reply about using nori dry so I soaked it, but that worked out well because adding the soaking water enhanced the sea taste. I don’t have a food processor but it was easy to mash/chop the ingredients the old fashioned way, by brute force ( don’t worry, it was fairly gentle brute force). And no smoked paprika around so I used regular pap and a drop of liquid smoke. It came out yummy despite all those deviations, another thing I like about your recipes. PLUS, it was easy. No more tuna envy! You have become an indispensable presence in my kitchen, Susan. Thank you so much.

    Reply

  27. So inspiring! I just pressure cooked some dried chickpeas w/ kombu and some crumpled nori to do a “Chick-pea of the Sea” and the results were incredible. If I ever get around to launching my new vegan/healthy living site, I’ll show you the pictures!

    Thanks for always keeping us fed!

    Reply

    • Try this:
      1 tbsp whole celery seed, 1 tbsp whole peppercorn, 4-6 bay leaves, 4 whole cloves, 1 tsp paprika (not smoked), 1/2 tsp whole cardamom, 1/2 tsp whole mustard seeds, 1/4 tsp fenugreek, 1/4 tsp mace.
      Give it all a good whir in the spice or cleaned coffee mill.

      Reply

  29. The label on my can of Old Bay mentions” spices and herbs including” red pepper, black pepper, salt, and paprika. Of course the details and proportions are a trade secret.

    Reply

  30. Hi Susan–

    This looks great, and I look forward to trying it. As you know, I love sea veggies as much as you love hot peppers and spices! This will be a fun thing to add to the repertoire. I enjoyed reading all the comments about how people use seaweed or how they are going to try it, too. I would second that comment about adding ginger. And to the folks who can’t find Bay Seasoning, I couldn’t either, a year and a half ago, but I searched the internet and found a recipe for it and made my own. Don’t have the link anymore, but its out there.

    All hail to sea veggies! And thanks for another great post. 🙂

    xo

    moonwatcher

    Reply

  33. This is so inspired! I made a few adjustments based on what I had (chopped purple cabbage instead of celery, nori instead of arame, firm tofu instead of silken, “River Bay” seasoning instead of “Old Bay” seasoning…I figure as long as 50% of the words in the spice’s name overlap, then I’m fine…), and it turned out great! And because I’m a serial over-salter, naturally had to throw in some chopped pickle.

    Really unique and tasty overall–

    Reply

  35. I have to say that I was apprehensive to try this recipe but it was just delicious. Low Fat Recipes like this is are a great option for people to have. I think that sometime it is just a matter of trying something new and knowing that it is a delicious but healthier alternative to some of the maybe more unhealthy things you eat on a daily basis. I work with Better Recipes and I really enjoy finding healthy recipes like this!

    Reply

  36. I was really looking forward to this one, but I did not like it at all. My hubby liked it a lot and ate a good amount. I’ll have to try it without the arame and a different spice than old bay.

    Reply

  37. First off, your blog is WONDERFUL!!! Thank you for your recipes. I made this “tuna” and added more arame and some dulse (I have already love sea vegetables so am used to and love the fishy-ness of it). I also added a bit of dijon mustard and, as a nod to my childhood tuna salad love, some relish! Honestly, my husband and I COULD NOT STOP EATING THE STUFF!!! But the true test was my in-laws (80 and 89 years old). I am cooking for them and have been wowing these two old school, conservative, meat loving folks with vegan meals. They LOVED it!!! So, THANKS for a new staple in our vegan recipe file! By the way, I always order my chickpeas, among other amazing beans from ranchogordo.com. They are a wonderful farm in California that grow heirloom beans. Their products are affordable, shipping is cheap and the beans are amazing!

    Reply

  40. Having been a lifelong vegetarian (now vegan), I’ve never had tuna salad but my husband says it really reminds him of tuna salad of years ago. It took us a while to find the Old Bay Seasoning, but we liked this so much that we already put it on the menu again. And, it gets better after sitting in the fridge for a while. Great for sandwiches at work the next day.

    Reply

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