It worked! sorta

So I have this weird thing for chicken salad sandwiches. I usually make them for Christmas dinner and once in the summer. I've had this image in my mind for a while. How could I give up meat and never have my delicious chicken salad sandwiches again? So I wondered if I could replace the chicken with something else. Perhaps chickpeas and cashews. I went to Whole Foods the other day and picked up some vegan mayo. You really aren't supposed to have a lot of fatty stuff like oil and mayo, but once in a while...

I had the vegan mayo and I thought I'd give it a go. I was just really curious about how it would turn out. I mixed it all up and it smelled really good, just like it usually does (it's the tarragon). Everything was ready so I opened the vegan mayo. It did not look right....It did not smell right...I mixed it in the salad mix, hoping for the best, and it most certainly DID NOT taste right! Turns out I don't eat vegan mayonnaise because it is disgusting. At least the brand I bought is disgusting. So what do I do now? My beautiful fake chicken salad was now ruined. Then I thought, what if I rinse it all out? There was nothing in there that couldn't go under the faucet: celery, grapes, pecans, chickpeas, red onions, tarragon, cashews, lemon juice. It would all make it through the wash. Okay, lemon juice wouldn't but I could add more, no problem.

I rinsed it all out, added more lemon juice and put it in the fridge. Today we made the sandwiches for dinner. Added mustard, tomatoes, lettuce and spinach. It was very crumbly but it really did taste pretty good. Not as good as the original chicken salad, I'm not going to lie to you. But it was still good, and now even more healthy without the mayo. I was thinking maybe next time I will leave out the cashews, because I don't really think they were necessary and it already has pecans, and mash up the chickpeas like hummus and add everything else in. Then it would stick together better. The kids even liked it but I promised Zoe I would still make chicken salad sandwiches for Christmas ('cause she loves them too.)