This vegan chicken salad is amazing piled on a sandwich, stuffed in a wrap, or on top of a crunchy salad! Made with protein-packed seitan, hearty chickpeas, and creamy vegan mayo seasoned with fresh dill and scallions. Whip up a batch for lunch today!
My husband and I recently added a new member to our family. He's a cat! Well, a kitten that's almost a cat, at eight months old. And he's really bad. I mean, we love him. We're completely obsessed with our new furbaby, but he's SO BAD!
I've always had cats but it's been a while since I lived with a kitten, and I forgot how much trouble they can get into. He keeps us up all night while he runs around the house like a maniac (sometimes chasing our older cat). He tries to eat my hair. And clothes. And furniture.
And lately, he is relentless about getting into the kitchen and onto the counter while I work.
That last thing didn't start happening until the last time I made this vegan chicken salad. He was pretty good until the day I started shooting the video (which you can view at the bottom of this post) and during the 15 seconds while I had my back turned to get some dill out of the fridge, he made his way onto the counter and started stuffing his little face with chickpeas.
Oh well. At least chickpeas are the cheapest and easiest to replace of all the ingredients in this recipe.
My husband and I have since installed an extra high baby gate in the doorway leading to the kitchen, which our little guy has already defeated by jumping, squeezing through the (2-inch spaced apart!) bars, and climbing the molding in the doorway. He's resourceful, that guy.
Vegan Chicken Salad Ingredients
So, what else goes into this recipe, aside from those chickpeas my cat loves so much? Seitan is the main ingredient that I've used to replace chicken.
Some recipes for vegan salady sandwich fillings use chickpeas on their own (like this one), and while chickpeas are great, they're not fooling anyone. Seitan on its own is quite chickeny, but it's a little too firm for chicken salad by itself. Mix it with some smashed chickpeas and you've got the perfect texture.
You can use homemade seitan or store-bought. If you use store-bought, you'll need exactly one eight ounce package. If you make it yourself using my recipe, go with the chicken flavor (I guess that's kind of obvious!), and you'll need about a half of a batch, or one slightly scant cup once it's diced.
I used vegan mayo for the dressing, along with some celery and almonds for crunch, and garlic, dill and scallions for flavor.
How It's Made
It's so easy! Grab a bowl and lightly mash your chickpeas. I used a potato masher, but a fork will work too. Add in the rest of your ingredients and stir everything together. Give it a taste-test, and make any adjustments you think are needed.
That's it! Pile it on a sandwich, stuff it in a wrap, or use it to top a salad.
FAQ & Tips for Making Amazing Vegan Chicken Salad
- Can this recipe be made gluten-free? I haven't tried making a gluten-free version, but soy curls may work as a substitute for the seitan. You could also probably omit the seitan and double the chickpeas, which will give you something that isn't quite as chickeny, but should still be tasty.
- Where do I get vegan mayo? Lots of regular supermarkets sell vegan mayo — check near the regular mayo or in the natural foods section. Just Mayo is my preferred brand.
- This vegan chicken salad will keep in the fridge for about 4 days once mixed.
Like this recipe? If so, please stop back and leave me a review and rating below if you try it! Also be sure to follow me on Facebook, Pinterest or Instagram, or subscribe to my newsletter for more recipes like this one!
📖 Recipe
Vegan Chicken Salad
Ingredients
- 1 cup cooked or canned chickpeas, drained, rinsed and lightly mashed
- 8 ounces seitan (about ½ batch if using homemade), finely diced
- ½ cup slivered or sliced roasted almonds
- 1 cup diced celery (about 2 stalks)
- â…“ cup chopped fresh dill
- ¼ cup chopped scallions (about 2 medium scallions)
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- ¼ cup vegan mayo (or more if you’d like a creamier salad)
- 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Place the chickpeas into a medium bowl and roughly mash them with a fork or potato masher.
- Add the remaining ingredients and stir until fully mixed.
- Taste-test and adjust any seasonings to your liking.
- Chill or serve immediately.
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I just bought some vital wheat gluten; can't wait to try this.
We all want to see a picture of your wild kitty. :-) <3
This is delicious! SO happy to have this addition to my vegan repertoire. I used tarragon instead of dill and walnuts instead of almonds (what I had on hand) plus added raisins. Yummy! Thank you!!!
The best (mock) chicken salad I ever had was from a farm stand in Hawaii. This recipe produced a chicken salad that was close, but I really need to go back to Hawaii to be sure. Haha!
Seriously, it was delicious and I am running my fork around the empty bowl as I write this. I bragged to my vegan sister about it, but she thinks her torn pre-frozen tofu recipe is wonderful, so I challenged her to a chicken salad smack-down at the next family get-together. I know who is going to win!!! :-)
Ha! I really don't blame you for going back to compare. :) I'm glad you're enjoying this one though! Thanks Mimi!
Love this chicken salad recipe. For variety, today I omitted the dill and added (oriental) curry powder to the mayo, some dried cranberries and the tiniest pinch of cayenne (to balance the sweetness of the cranberries). OMG!!! Best curried chicken salad ever. Thanks for all of your great recipes. I am loving them!
That sounds delicious! I've been making something similar with tofu!
I'm so tired of peanut butter or avocado on bread, so hurray for vegan sandwich filling! I've been making the same tofu "egg" salad for years, and this is such a welcome departure. The texture of this is meaty and substantial--yay! I was concerned about using so much raw garlic, but I minced it very fine, and it tasted great. Loved the toasted almonds too.
Yay! I make a lot of tofu egg salad too, and this is one of my favorites for switching things up. I'm glad you like it!
This looks so tasty and stress free, i'm so excited to make this!
I've been whipping up homemade seitan a lot lately and I feel this would be a great way to use it! So many possibilities. Thanks for the inspiration!
I haven't done much with seitan because of the wheat and my little one can't have wheat, but I've always been curious about it. It sounds like it has a great texture. I will have to try this one out!
Easy dinners are so good for stressful weeks!