The BEST Vegetarian Chicken Salad (15 Minutes) (2024)

Top your favorite sandwich or salad with this delicious Vegetarian Chicken Salad recipe, a quick combination of chickpeas, apples, and the classic chicken salad add-ins! Our community has had success making this in a food processor and with various vegan options – see comments!

Something about chicken salad is so dang satisfying. Maybe it’s the savory crunchiness or the simple fact that it’s filling, but either way, I could eat an entire bowl.

If you’re a big chicken salad connoisseur yourself, I’m so excited for you to try this vegetarian chicken salad variation. Made with chickpeas, we’re totally skipping the chicken in favor of 2 cans of protein rich chickpeas combined with apple, onion, and celery.

A tangy and savory mayo and Greek yogurt dressing makes the dish complete! The whole shebang takes about 15 minutes to make. It creates 4 servings perfect for adding to a sandwich or salad or enjoying as-is!

How to make this vegetarian chicken salad Recipe

We’ll make this veggie chicken salad in two parts. We’ll start with the main ingredients like the chickpeas, onions, and apples, and then we’ll create the dressing and combine everything together.

Step 1: Drain and prep the chickpeas
To begin, drain 2 cans of chickpeas and roughly smash them with a fork or your fingers.

Step 2: Chop the apple and veggies
Finely chop 1 pink lady apple, 1 stalk of celery, and ¼ of a red onion.

Step 3: Assemble the salad
To make the dressing, mix ¼ cup of mayo, ¼ cup of plain Greek yogurt, 2 tablespoons of dijon mustard, 1 teaspoon of lemon juice, and ¼ teaspoon each of salt and pepper together in a large bowl. Add the other ingredients and stir to evenly combine.

For the tastiest results,allow the “chicken” salad to chill in the fridge for 1 hour before serving.

Veggie Chicken salad ingredient add ons

Chicken salad is one of those recipes that can be made approximately 1,000 different ways. And while I do feel mine is the best (I’m not biased, really), there are some ingredients that you can feel free to add or sub depending on what you like! Here are some ideas:

• Sunflower seeds
• Peanuts
• Grapes
• Chives
• Parsley
• Sour Cream
• Brown Sugar
• Black olives
• Green onion

Extra Delicious vegetarian meals to try

Can’t get enough of the veggie alternatives to popular meals? Try some of these! (And be sure to check out our whole library of delicious chickpea recipes).

• Chickpea “Tuna” Melt
• Vegan Korean “BBQ”
• Carrot “Hot Dogs”
• Vegan “Tuna” Sushi Bowl

Or for a different take on chicken, try our Chick-Fil-A Cauliflower Sandwich!

It took everything in Rhubarb’s will to not snatch up one of those croissants.