Curried Chickpea Salad

Back in October of last year, Fat Free Vegan Kitchen blogged about two chickpea salad recipes she developed and I made the first Creamy Chickpea Salad right away. That one first because she said it was her favorite. It was great...I made it twice in one week. :-) Now I'm finally getting around to trying out her second recipe from that October post.

We had this for dinner in lieu of a decidedly non-veg dinner I'd planned of Salisbury steak with mashers. Making up for our gluttony at Aster's Ethiopian restaurant the night before. Man, that's some seriously good finger food! And I asked them what they make their injera from...only teff, buckwheat flour and yeast! No wheat flour/gluten thank you very much. I've bemoaned the fact that some Ethiopian places I've eaten at use wheat in their injera and it just ain't right. Specially when you're trying to take your gluten-intolerant friend out for a nice dinner! :-)

Ok, that was quite the deviation from the topic at hand.
Obviously, use whatever good quality mayo you like if you're not a vegan.
We just happened to have some vegan canola mayo. If you're looking to cut calories in the mayo dept, don't buy that regular mayo "lite" crap...it's got tons of other stuff you wouldn't want in your bod. Spectrum Light Canola Mayo is a great alternative. 35 cals per Tbs. compared to 90-100 cals per Tbs. in regular mayo.

Curried Chickpea Salad:
(Adapted from FatFreeVegan Kitchen)

1/2 medium onion, minced
1/2 bell pepper, minced
1/2 hot chile pepper, seeded and minced (optional, but I used a serrano seeds and all)
1 teaspoon good mild curry powder
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas (I used one whole can)
1/4 cup okara or silken tofu, mashed well (I used lite silken firm tofu and used more than 1/4 cup)
1 tablespoon lemon juice (used more)
1 tablespoon Nayonaise or other vegan mayo (I used 2 Tbs.)
1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
generous grating black pepper
to the original recipe I added ~2 Tbs diced celery, a handful of golden raisins; minced, a squirt of agave nectar, and topped each serving with roasted cashews.

Add a small amount of olive oil to a small saucepan and sauté onion over medium-high heat until it softens, about 2-3 minutes. Add bell pepper and hot pepper, if using, and cook another minute. Add curry powder and cumin and cook for 30 seconds. Remove from heat.

Mash chickpeas with the tofu in a medium-sized bowl. Add the onion mixture and all remaining ingredients. Stir well and check for seasoning. If necessary add a little more curry powder, salt, or lemon juice. Refrigerate until chilled.