Healthy Tomato Remoulade Chickpea Salad

I was reading a magazine the other day and saw a great idea: chickpea salad made like chicken salad. Not sure why I didn't think of that. I grew up having chicken salad constantly. My mom used to make it all different ways, but one of my favorites was (and still is) chicken mixed with a bit of mayo, red wine vinegar, dijon, almond slivers and red grapes (halved). Why should I deprive myself of this favorite meal, just because I choose not to eat meat very often. As always, chickpeas come to the rescue. Chickpeas are kind of the superhero of the vegetarian world. They go in and with anything. Anyways, I had every intention of making a light mayo based chickpea salad, grapes and all, for lunch this weekend. However, I made a tomato remoulade for pan seared scallops on Saturday night and the remoulade was just so tasty. I decided since it had almost all the  ingredients I would put in a regular chicken salad with the positive addition of grape tomatoes, why not mix it with slightly mashed chickpeas. I did and the result was perfect. I had it with some fresh romaine lettuce and sliced tomatoes one day and atop a piece of homemade bread on another day.

Healthy Tomato Remoulade Chickpea Salad

Tomato Remoulade

• 2 cups cherry tomatoes
• 3 tbsp light mayonnaise
• 2 tbsp dijon mustard
• 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp salt

1. Place all ingredients in a Vitamix (or blender) and puree. Start on Variable, 1 and immediately increase to 10, switching to High for 30 seconds.
2. Place in a container to cool.
3. Excess sauce can be refrigerated for up to a week.

Chickpea Salad

• 14 ounces chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 1/4-1/3 cup of tomato remoulade sauce

1. Place drained and rinsed chickpeas in a large bowl. Using a potato masher (or backside of a fork), mash the chickpeas slightly. I chose to have them half mashed and hallf whole, though you could certainly mash them entirely or leave them completely whole. 
2. Mix in 1/4 cup of tomato remoulade with the mashed chickpeas. If you wish, add more remoulade 1 tablespoon at a time until you are satisfied.
3. Eat plain, atop romaine lettuce or on an open face sandwich.