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Lemon Chickpea Tuna Salad 🍋🥒🥕is so easy, bright and vibrant, packed with protein AND fiber! There’s crunch and TEXTURE in every bite from the veggies including cucumbers, celery, carrots, and cabbage. Ready in 10 minutes, made with simple fridge and pantry ingredients, and extremely customizable based on what you have on hand. Meal prep it for weekday lunches or enjoy as a light, no-cook dinner.
Easy Lemon Chickpea Tuna Salad Recipe
🤔 If you’re wondering any of the following:
- What can I make with a can of tuna or can of chickpeas that’s also fresh, vibrant, and exciting. No old school tuna salad with globs of mayo in sight here.
- What can I make for my work lunch that’s healthy without being boring and that doesn’t need separate containers for dressings and doesn’t need to be reheated.
- How can I use up all the random veggies in my crisper drawer before they go to waste.
- What can I make that involves no actual cooking, no oven, no pan, no skillet.
- Incorporate more fiber and protein in my meals – whether it’s a lunch, light dinner, or side salad at dinner – but just do it.
Then you need to make this easy tuna salad recipe with chickpeas, so many veggies, so much crunch and texture in every bite, and the lemon flavor really shines though so it tastes vibrant, not basic. Think of the ‘recipe’ as a building block rather than a set-in-stone blueprint and tweak it how you’d like.
I’ve got another Chickpea Tuna Salad recipe and this Tuna Pasta Salad for extra ways to jazz up canned tuna.
Ingredients In Tuna Salad with Chickpeas
Everything here is mix-and-match!
- If you don’t have something on hand, don’t care for it, have something else you do want to include, go for it.
- If you want to bulk this up and stretch the recipe, that’s easy to do with another can of either tuna or garbanzo beans. And/or add more shredded cabbage or other hearty greens like shredded romaine lettuce or kale.
- Canned tuna: I used Fishwife Albacore Tuna with Spanish Lemon which is a more gourmet tuna as canned tuna goes. The lemon flavor is nicely noticeable and being that I didn’t drain the oil, all of the intensity of the lemon flavor went into the tuna salad. I used two 3.2-ounce cans. You can try this Bumble Bee Lemon Pepper Tuna which comes in 3-ounce cans. Or simply use your favorite canned tuna and add more lemon juice or lemon zest.
- Garbanzo beans: I always have a can of Trader Joe’s on hand. Rinse and drain.
- VeggiesAdd: Celery, carrots, cucumber, sliced green and red cabbage (from a bagged coleslaw mix) are what I used.
- Other veggies options include: Red onions, green onions, chives, bell peppers of any color, zucchini, grape or cherry tomatoes of any color, other greens such as romaine lettuce, kale, chard, or your favorite hearty leafy greens.
- Fresh herbs: Cilantro is what I had on hand but this would be lovely with basil. Fresh mint would add a nice dimension and so would fresh parsley. If you don’t have any on hand, just omit.
- Lemon juice: Despite having a lemon tree in my front yard, I FORGOT that fact and used bottled lemon juice. Santa Cruz Organic is the only one I buy and always have both their lemon and lime juice in my fridge. They’re both totally legit. For more robust lemon flavor, zest a lemon before using the juice.
- Seasonings: Salt, freshly ground black pepper, and just a pinch of red pepper flakes for a tiny bit of heat because I need that but omit if you don’t.
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
How To Make Garbanzo Bean Tuna Salad
- Add the tuna and garbanzo beans to a large mixing bowl.
- Chop the veggies and then add them.
- Add the herbs, lemon juice, seasonings, stir, and taste.
- Serve immediately or cover and chill in the fridge before serving.
I may earn commissions on purchases through links in this post. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Please read our disclosure policy.
Lemon Chickpea Tuna Salad
🍋🥒🥕 Easy, bright and vibrant from the lemon, and packed with protein! There's so much crunch and TEXTURE in every bite from the veggies including cucumbers, celery, carrots, and cabbage. Ready in 10 minutes, made with simple fridge and pantry ingredients, and extremely customizable based on what you have on hand. Meal prep it for weekday lunches or enjoy as a light, no-cook dinner.If you're serving this as a side with other things, it'll serve 4-6ish. If you're serving this as the only thing, it'll serve 2-3. Appetites vary! This recipe is very easy to inexpensively bulk up with extra veggies or greens – or add more tuna or more chickpeas.
Video
Equipment
- veggie chopper optional but recommended
Ingredients
- 15 ounce can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed (I use reduced sodium)
- 6.4 ounces canned tuna, (I use Fishwife Albacore Tuna with Spanish lemon, or use another lemon tuna; or use regular canned tuna & add more lemon juice or zest; either oil or water packed are fine)
- 1 large cucumber finely diced, (I didn't peel it or seed it; or substitute with English cucumber)
- 1 cup celery, finely diced (from about 2 large stalks)
- 1 cup carrots, finely diced (I used about 15 baby carrots so I didn’t need to bother peeling anything)
- 2 cups shredded cabbage, or to taste (about 2 heaping handfuls from a bag of coleslaw mix; kale, chard, romaine or other hearty greens may be substituted)
- 3-4 tablespoons fresh cilantro, finely minced (fresh basil would also be lovely; fresh parsley may be substituted; mint would be nice too but use a bit less)
- 1-2 tablespoons lemon juice, plus more to taste (add 1/2 to 1 tsp lemon zest for extra lemon flavor)
- 1 teaspoon salt, or to taste (I used about 2 teaspoons total)
- ¾ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or to taste
- red pepper flakes, optional for heat (I used 1 teaspoon)
- red onion, optional and to taste (green onions may be subsittuted)
- cherry tomatoes, optional and to taste
- bell peppers of any color, diced small, optional and to taste
- olive oil, if desired and to taste
Instructions
- Tips – I strongly recommend a vegetable chopper for this recipe because it makes everything go much faster. All the veggies are mix-and-match and very flexible so feel free to make swaps based on what you have and your preferences.
- To a large bowl, add the garbanzo beans, tuna, cucumber, celery, carrots, and stir to combine.Tuna Tips – I used two 3.2-ounce cans Fishwife Tuna with Lemon. Because the lemon flavor is concentrated in the lemon oil and because that oil also serves to coat everything else in the salad, I do NOT drain the tuna. You can also use another lemon tuna like this Bumble Bee Lemon Pepper Tuna.If you're using 'basic canned tuna' that's packed in water, drain it. Then add olive oil at the end, to taste.If you want to amp up the lemon flavor without buying lemon-flavored tuna, add lemon zest and/or additional lemon juice.I suggest at least 5.5 to 6 ounces tuna but canned tuna is sold in slightly different quantities so use your judgment.
- Add the cabbage, to taste, and stir to combine. Cabbage Tips – I use bagged coleslaw mix and grabbed two heaping handfuls and then ran my knife over it on a cutting board because some of the pieces were still a bit big. If you want to bulk up this recipe without adding cost or calories, add more cabbage!
- Add the cilantro, lemon juice, salt, pepper, optional red pepper flakes, and any optional ingredients like red onions, green onions, cherry tomatoes, bell peppers, etc. and stir to combine.
- Taste the salad and make any necessary flavor adjustments. Flavor Tips – If it tastes at all flat or boring, it likely needs more salt. We're flavoring a lot of veggies and salt brings out their natural flavor, and is necessary. Don't be afraid to salt your food properly. The same goes for pepper, but it's not as critical. If you want more lemon flavor, add a touch more lemon juice and/or lemon zest. If it's dry, add olive oil a tablespoon at a time. If you have any bottled Italian salad dressing on hand, 1-2 tablespoons of that are a nice touch.
- Serve immediately OR cover and chill before serving. I eat it as-is but it's also great with pita crackers, tortilla chips, crackers of any kind, or on homemade sourdough.
Notes
Storage: Salad will keep airtight in the fridge for up to 4-5 days. It’s a great work lunch or meal prep recipe to have on hand. Note that as the salad sits, the flavors marry and blend and I like it even better the next day. There will be some natural juices from the veggies that are released because as they sit in the presence of salt, that just happens. Either drain it or enjoy it.
Nutrition
Serving: 1serving, Calories: 171cal, Carbohydrates: 23g, Protein: 15g, Fat: 3g, Saturated Fat: 0.4g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g, Monounsaturated Fat: 1g, Cholesterol: 16mg, Sodium: 1027mg, Potassium: 572mg, Fiber: 8g, Sugar: 4g, Vitamin A: 5611IU, Vitamin C: 19mg, Calcium: 94mg, Iron: 3mg
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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