This chickpea pesto sandwich is a non-traditional pesto with smashed chickpeas that makes a delicious sandwich filling for an easy vegetarian meal.
This is a sandwich with an identity crisis.
It’s part hummus, part pesto, part guacamole.
It’s like throwing a Greek, an Italian and a Mexican together and telling them to have a party.
Not a bad combination really, especially if they all bring drinks.
I’ve actually been drunk in all 3 of those countries (sounds like a good resume booster, no?) and if I had to pick a favorite, it’d be Italy.
Only because it involved lots of delicious wine, Venice and an Italian waiter kissing the entire length of my arm from my finger tips to my shoulder while serving me gnocchi. A foodie’s fantasy come true. I was 19 and it was amazing even with my parents sitting next to me.
The gnocchi was pretty good too.
If I had to pick one of those things this tastes like the most, it’s pesto.
Just a rather unusually creamy one with some chickpeas thrown in.
I can’t promise any sexually frustrated waiters appearing at your table while eating this, but I can promise a multicultural party in your mouth.
Who said lunch had to be boring?
Mashed chickpeas are a great way to do “lunch salads” in a vegetarian way.
The same way you’d make a sardine salad, salmon salad or tuna salad, you can make a chickpea salad sandwich like this.
The ingredients are up to you. I happen to love the pesto flavor of this sandwich but you can play around depending on your preferences.
Love spice? Use the ingredients in this sriracha avocado egg salad and just swap out hard boiled eggs for chickpeas!
Looking for more delicious sandwich recipes like this chickpea pesto sandwich?
Try one of these:
Smoked Salmon BLT with Avocado
Garlic Yogurt Chicken Salad Sandwich with Sun Dried Tomato Spread
Summer BLTC Sandwich
Roasted Sweet Potato Apple Ham Sandwich
Chickpea Pesto Sandwich
Ingredients
- 15 ounces canned chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- 1 avocado
- 2 tablespoons sun dried tomatoes, chopped
- 2 tablespoons cilantro, chopped
- 1 clove garlic
- 1/2 cup baby spinach
- 1/4 cup plain greek yogurt
- 1 tablespoon tahini
- salt & pepper
- juice of 1/2 a lemon
- 4 slices of wheat bread
Instructions
- Dry chickpeas and remove as many of the “skins” as possible. Transfer to a medium bowl.
- Roughly smash chickpeas with the back of a fork or a potato masher until they’re about half smashed, half intact. Set aside.
- Combine remaining ingredients except bread in a food processor and process until creamy and combined.
- Transfer half the “pesto” to the bowl with the chickpeas and combine with a spatula.
- Use remaining pesto to spread on each slice of bread.
- Spoon pesto/chickpea mixture onto one piece of bread and top with another slice to create a sandwich.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Gina Matsoukas is an AP syndicated writer. She is the founder, photographer and recipe developer of Running to the Kitchen — a food website focused on providing healthy, wholesome recipes using fresh and seasonal ingredients. Her work has been featured in numerous media outlets both digital and print, including MSN, Huffington post, Buzzfeed, Women’s Health and Food Network.
This was so, so tasty! Such original flavors and so easy to make! We had it with some tomato soup, a riff on a classic, and a totally successful one! Great concept, easy to execute. Thanks!
Making this today. Can’t wait! Looks sooo good.
I just made this for lunch (for tomorrow) and it is soooo good! I used all basil instead of cilantro and spinach because that is what I had in my fridge so it made an amazing hummus, pesto, guac hybrid. I can’t wait to eat more tomorrow, thanks so much for sharing the recipe.
Glad you liked it!
I made this with canned beans and fell in love so I tried with sprouted beans and it was even better! Thanks!
This looks fricking delicious! I’m not normally one to have a non-meaty sandwich, but I think rules can get bent :-) yummy hummus-stuff AND avocado AND pesto, love it.
I made something similar to this recently in a salad form – a chickpea avocado pesto scallion spring mix salad. Thanks for sharing.
Chickpeas and pesto combined? Yum, yum, and yum! Sounds like a winning combination – full of flavor and fiber!
you’re lucky that you made this healthy because i’d be yelling at you for making me gain weight after i ate 3 of these…this really looks divine. it has the best ingredients and everything you added in there just adds to the layer of flavors!!
I pinned and tweeted. Going to get ingredients today!
Sounds delicious. Love your story of the Italian waiter. I made something similar to this recently in a salad form – a chickpea avocado pesto scallion spring mix salad.