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!
Sooo good and fun to make! I just made it for lunches. I excluded the capers and the olives and added chopped carrots to the chickpea salad to give it a little crunch – I recommend!!
I’m so glad you loved it!
I made this without the olives, as my husband doesn’t like them, and loaded the sandwiches up with the pickled onions, also from this site, and it was absolutely delicious. It also kept well in the fridge for a few days. I will definitely be making this again.
Best Chickpea salad ever!
And it even makes me like tahini, which I always have trouble with in dressings. Just not my thing, I guess.
But here everything works perfectly. The texture and flavors are on point. I’ve tried a lot of different faux tuna salads in the past and this is by far the best.
I used parsley instead of cilantro because I wanted more of a classic taste and it worked extremely well.
This is going straight to my summer bi-monthly rotation.
Hi Sandy, I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
Can you used canned chickpeas? Rinse and drain?
This was delicious! I didn’t have green beans, so I sliced a zucchini and toasted it in a pan instead. My husband liked it too, and he didn’t even miss the meat! I used a ciabatta baguette from Trader Joes, it was tasty on the outside and soft on the inside. Thanks for the great inspiration!
I meant to type toasty on the outside!
My husband made this recipe last night. Its so delicious! We are not vegetarians but try to have a couple of vegetarians recipes a week and this didn’t disappoint! Thanks for sharing!
I made this yesterday and just got to eat it….,so yummy!!
Thx for the recipe!
I made this last night, and even though at first I was a little unsure about the cilantro, then the basil, I have seen the light! I am in love with the chickpea salad! Thanks so much for the inspiration! Like you, I love love love to make soup on Sundays, especially cold crummy Sundays, and I peruse your site frequently for inspiration. This was a great sandwich to accompany our Sunday soup night, and we will nosh on the chickpea mash for a few days into the week. Cheers!
Ha ha, I love those herbs! Glad you stuck with it and ended up loving them in the sandwich 🙂
Try to made this for kids. I thought it was delicious, . Absolutely a “Very yummy dad” (my kids said), Thanks for the recipe!
Forgot star rating.
Made this for a picnic lunch. Extremely good. ⭐️
This is such perfect timing! Headed to the beach with a bunch of omnivores this weekend and while they are all eating lunch meat sandwiches, I’ll be munching on this!
Delicious! I loved all the crunchy bits and the briny goodness of the chickpea spread. So tasty. But I have to agree with the SOFT baguette suggestion. My baguette was too crunchy and the filling oozed out the sides. Still yummy though!
Ooooh, a Nicoise salad sandwich?! I’m already a fan!
Vaooov. Great.. i wana to this. Thanks
Just made this for lunch. I thought it was delicious, though I used more mustard when making the sandwich. Absolutely a “do again”! Thanks for the recipe!
Just made it. Used a peeled black radish sliced thinly (mandolin) and a thinly sliced Vidalia onion as that is what I had on hand. I agree that a bit more mustard and perhaps 2 tsp. of capers. Delicious and beautiful presentation!
so glad you enjoyed it!!
You’re welcome, I’m glad you enjoyed it!!
Amazing Pictures, I love the idea of a sandwich along with this hummus-like dressing. Definitely going to give it a try.
I just made a chickpea salad this week! Clearly I love it…can’t wait to try this version! 🙂
really nice tweak to the original, appreciate your putting this sans egg or tuna version together, and still has some protein with the chickpeas, so thank you!
Yay, this is how to make a nice healthy sandwich.Looks great and full of good stuff. Awesome. Must try out. Thanks