This chickpea salad sandwich recipe is my vegan spin on a pan bagnat! Crunchy veggies, herbs, and olives fill it with bright and briny flavor.
Jack has kindly titled this chickpea salad sandwich a Pan Bag-Not. If you ask me, it has everything that makes a classic pan bagnat so craveable: crisp veggies, briny flavors, and soft baguette. However, it doesn’t include the traditional tuna or hard-boiled eggs. It may be completely unconventional, but it’s completely delicious (and completely vegan, too!).
Chickpea Salad Sandwich Recipe Components
This chickpea salad sandwich starts with my favorite plant-based “tuna” salad. It’s briny and tangy from capers, Dijon mustard, and lemon juice. Instead of mayo, I add a bit of tahini to make it rich and creamy. The chickpea sandwich spread recipe comes from our first cookbook (on a different sandwich), and making it again reminded me just how much I love it!
Then, I load this sandwich up with crunchy veggies and fresh fixings. I start with olives for more briny flavor, thinly sliced red onion, and blanched green beans. Radishes, cucumbers, and fresh basil round the whole thing out. This combination is fantastic, but if you don’t have all the ingredients on hand, don’t worry. Feel free to skip some of the veggies, or swap in your favorites. A handful of leafy greens, red peppers, or tomato slices would be great additions here.
And last but not least, let’s talk bread! For this sandwich, it’s important that you find good, fresh baguette that’s on the softer side. Why? First, because life’s too short for bad baguette. Second, if your baguette is too firm, this filling will squish out a bit – which is still delicious, just a tad messy!
Chickpea Salad Sandwich Serving Suggestions
This chickpea salad sandwich is a fantastic weekday lunch! If you want to prep it in advance, make the chickpea mixture ahead of time and store it in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days. Assemble the sandwich on the morning of the day (or days) you plan to eat it. Head to this post to find my best tips for prepping and packing sandwiches to take on the go!
This recipe is also wonderful picnic fare. Enjoy it on its own, or pair it with a fresh salad like my pasta salad, broccoli salad, cucumber salad, or Greek salad. For more serving ideas, check out this post for my top 37 salad recipes. Enjoy!
More Healthy Lunch Ideas
If you love this chickpea salad sandwich recipe, try one of these fun sandwiches next:
- Best Egg Salad Sandwich (vegan option included!)
- Seared Tofu Banh Mi
- BBQ Jackfruit Sandwiches
- Crispy Cauliflower Po’ Boy Sandwich
- Lemon Edamame Avocado Sandwich
For even more healthy lunch ideas, check out this post! Then, find more of my favorite vegan recipes here.
Chickpea Salad Sandwich
- 1½ cups cooked chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- 2 tablespoons tahini
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- ½ garlic clove
- 1 teaspoon capers
- 1 green onion, chopped
- 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- handful of thin green beans, trimmed
- 1 soft baguette, sliced in half
- 8 to 10 Kalamata olives, pitted and sliced in half
- thinly sliced red onion, rinsed and dried
- vegan mayo (or regular mayo), for spreading
- ¼ English cucumber, thinly sliced
- 1 radish, thinly sliced
- 6 to 8 fresh basil leaves
- sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- Make the chickpea salad: In a food processor, combine the chickpeas, tahini, Dijon mustard, garlic, capers, green onions, cilantro, lemon juice, and pinches of salt and pepper. Pulse until combined, but do not puree. Season to taste.
- Blanch the green beans. Bring a small pot of salted water to a boil and place a bowl of ice water nearby. Drop the green beans into the boiling water for 1½ minutes, then scoop into the ice water to stop the cooking process. Once cool, drain, pat dry, and chop into 1-inch pieces.
- Assemble the sandwiches: Spread the chickpea salad on one side of the baguette. Press the chopped green beans into the chickpea salad and top with the olives and red onion slices. Spread of layer of mayo on the other half of the baguette and top with the sliced cucumbers, radishes, and basil. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Press together, slice, and enjoy!
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If you’re thinking about making this recipe, I recommend it! Super easy and you can make modifications (I didn’t have tahini but it still turned out fine).
I’m so glad you loved it!
If someone has a sesame allergy, do you just eliminate the tahini or substitute it with something? Thanks!
There are so man y chickpea recipes., but this
one was good and easy. Will make it again. I mixed vegan mayo in as well.
I have chickpeas in a can. Directions in recipe say used cooked chickpeas. How do I cook my canned chickpeas?? Thanks
Chickpeas in a can are already cooked – so just use 1 1/2 cups (1 can) chickpeas, drained and rinsed, right in the recipe.
Curious, why is the thinly sliced red onion rinsed and dried?
It takes away their sharp flavor, which can be overpowering. If you don’t mind it, you can skip that step.
Thanks for your reply, Jeanine. Now it makes sense to me.
Great flavors! Very tasty sandwich. I think next time I will add some greek yogurt to help bind the ingredients a little more
Another delicious veggie dinner. Thank you!
Good Morning, I wanted to know what type of bread was used for the chick pea salad sandwich ?
Hi Kia, it’s baguette.
These sandwiches are fantastic! We’ve been moving to a more vegan diet over the last months and this is a great way to keep us excited and on track! Yum!!
I have made these sandwiches a few times now and they are my fave sammies now! I’m a vegetarian, but many of my peeps are not and none of them even missed meat in this recipe. They are excellent for a picnic, I just pack everything separate and use a soft sided cooler. I usually take the skins off of the Chickpeas. 10 out of 10!
How do you take the skins off the chickpeas?
I don’t – it’s not necessary here.
To remove the skins, I kinda squeeze them with my thumb and pointer finger and the chickpea will pop right out of the skin! I also added pickled red onions and omg yum
Very tasty chickpea salad – unique combination of flavors (cilantro & capers?!) -but it really works. We didn’t have all the makings suggested for sandwiches but it was very good on toasted rye bread with lettuce, tomato, & kalamatas. And the leftover salad is a nice spread on crispbread. This recipe is a keeper – thanks!
My husband and I loved this recipe! I used toasted sourdough bread and left the green beans raw. I’m so glad I made a special run to the store for cilantro—the salad wouldn’t have been the same without it. So crunchy, fresh, and tasty! Thank you!
I’m making this for the 3rd time. Our is tasty, easy and relatively inexpensive. It gets rave reviews from everyone I’ve made it for. I hollowed out the bread and I liked it better.
Definitely a go to recipe for a refreshing lunch!
Simple and awesome, I recently went back to vegan after 10 year hiatus and this was super nice. My hubby called it a deconstructed falafel sandwich. Hit the spot for a picnic on the patio on a sunny spring day. Thanks!!
Made this and it was sooo delicious! Thank you so much for this amazing recipe .
Just made this for dinner and it was amazing!! Definitely making again! Thank you for all of your beautiful pictures and tasty recipes!
I’m so glad you loved it!
Did you cook the chickpeas or can u use just canned?
Hi Hanna, you can use canned chickpeas or you can cook your own – either is totally fine here!
This recipe is incredible! I made this for a family picnic this weekend and it was a hit. Everyone absolutely loved it.
I topped the sandwiches with red pepper, red onion, and lettuce. I added about a tablespoon of dijon mustard just for a little extra flavour!
I can’t believe how good these are! Not a single person complained about the lack of meat on their sandwich, so it’s a yes from me!
I just made this for lunch. It was easy to pull together. I left out the capers and added some cayenne pepper. I ate mine on a pita. However, I am going to try it on a bed of lettuce with sliced up vegetables later. This is just so wonderful. I am going to make it again on a regular basis. Thank you so much.
I’m so glad you loved it!
I really didn’t want to turn on my oven so I decided to make this thinking it would be pretty good. I was wrong – it was pretty great! I didn’t have green beans but I had everything else, including a baguette in the freezer which only took an hour to thaw completely on the counter. I’m sure I’ll nake this a lot this summer.
Hi Haley, I’m so glad you loved it!!