Chickpea Radish Hors d’Oeuvres
I love versatile recipes. This simple chickpea mash can be made into an elegant hors d’oeuvre or eaten plain with a spoon in your pajamas. I must confess, the latter is usually how I eat this dish, but I didn’t think you wanted to see a picture of me in my pajamas on my couch eating mashed chickpeas. So you get to see the fancy version.
While it looks fancy, it’s dead easy. Mash the chickpeas with yummy stuff (recipe below), place a small amount on a cracker, add a slice of a fun veggie, something leafy, and voila! Party food!
I got these breathtaking radishes (I never thought I’d describe a radish as breathtaking. Ever.) from my CSA. They called them “storage radishes.” I don’t know about you, but something called “storage radishes” doesn’t exactly excite me. Imagine my surprise when I sliced one open and was greeted by a shocking pink center. Storage radishes? That’s really the best they could do? What about “Super Awesome Party Radishes” or “Ridiculously Fun Magic Radishes”?
When I sliced them I thought that they looked like watermelon, and sure enough, a google search for “watermelon radish” yielded photos that look very much like these. Watermelon radish is a much better name. In terms of taste, they’re mild and crispy, and a teeny bit sweet. Personally think that makes the perfect as a garnish, since they won’t overwhelm any other flavors in your dish.
There are a few different ways I eat this chickpea salad.
As Hors d’Oeuvres, shown. As a simple dip with crackers or veggies. On open faced-sandwiches. Or–my husband’s favorite–chickpea melts: spread the chickpea salad on slices of bread. Top with your favorite vegan cheese, and bake at 350º F for 10 minutes. Broil to finish, serve immediately.
I use a prepared vegan mayonnaise in this recipe. There are a few different brands out there, but for this I recommend Vegenaise. Nayonaise is a little thinner and has more tang, and while I like it on sandwiches, it’s not the best match for the chickpea salad. I hear Trader Joe’s has an accidently vegan mayo (I think they just bill it as Low Fat, but it happens to be vegan), but I haven’t tried it yet so I can’t recommended it.
Feel free to be creative with your toppings. Carrots, chives, sesame seeds, paprika.. whatever. Think about color, texture, and flavor. There are a million different (and easy) ways to make party food look fun without over-complicating things. But if you can find watermelon radishes, I highly recommend them. They look like regular white, round radishes, but the long root has a pink tinge. Here’s a photo of a whole watermelon radish.
Chickpea Salad
1 15oz can Chickpeas, rinsed well
3-4 Tbs Vegenaise (vegan mayo)
2 tsp Fresh Lemon Juice
1 tsp Mustard
1 Tbs Nutritional Yeast
1/2 tsp Paprika (sweet, hot, or smoked)
1/2 tsp Salt
Fresh Craked Black Pepper
Mash all the ingredients to form a chunky spread. Refrigerate or serve immediately.
I wouldn’t dare cooking those radishes. What a beauty.
I’m in love with this! I bet any hearty bean would work too. White beans maybe? Beautiful!
Those are gorgeous and sound wonderful. Now I want to make them and throw a party!
They’re also called beauty heart radishes. A raw-food restaurant in my town slices them paper thin and stuffs them to make raw ravioli.
Those are beautiful. I had never heard of storage radishes before this. You’re right about the name. How boring! They seriously make your chickpea crackers look super fancy.
this is really, really beautiful!
Entertaining and informative as always! :)
Those look so pretty! I could totally go for one of those right now…or even better, a chickpea melt. I’ll definatley be trying this one out.
Oh that looks amazing! Almost to pretty to be eaten…You really are an artist, your use of color is spectacular!
What amazing pictures… you are a talented woman! I love chickpeas and can’t wait to try this recipe! Thank you.
Gorgeous little canapes. I made some with avocado and radish on the weekend – but yours are so much more pretty! I’ve never heard of storage radish before, looks great.
Looks delightful! I’ll take this to an upcoming soiree. Thanks!
Paula
I just made the Chickpea Salad and it was awesome! I only had Nayonaise to work with and I think Vegenaise would be much better. Next time I have to try it with the bread and radishes. :)
Lolo, this looks awesome. I’m making it tonight for dinner. Whoever mentioned a chickpea melt…yep, that’s the ticket.
By the way, I’ve missed you at the PPK.
Perfect! What else can one say? I love them. I want to eat them. You are amazing!!!!
i vote for: Ridiculously Fun Magic Radishes.
I Love Chickpeas so I might just have to try this. Probably with a spoon, in my pjs, on the couch. It’s how I eat most of my meals.
I found you through the marvelous portal that is TasteSpotting. I am bookmarking you now. Thank you for sharing this delicious-looking recipe. I can’t wait to get started on it!
I made the chickpea salad/spread today. It’s perfect. Seriously. An absolutely perfect recipe. I agree regarding using vegenaise. I think the flavor is more “pure” when using it as mayonnaise-type base. I see tons of variations on this one in my future. Forget canapes….I put a lot of it on a big slap of toast.
Thanks you so much! Kristine
I made it too! It was seriously delcious. I will be making this again for sure.
I just wanted to say that I love this recipe. I hadn’t ever had vegenaise before so I originally made it with a very small of mayo. I don’t really like mayo and hardly ever use it but I had to use what I had. It was good so I went to Whole Foods and spent about an hour looking for the Vegenaise. I found it and made another batch and I love it! I ate it on some home made wheat bread (Peter Rinehart’s recipe). BTW this is my first comment, I love your site and am planning on purchasing your book! Thanks!
I have been making almost the exact same mashed chickpea salad for a few years now. I found it online somewhere as a mock tuna salad. I have to say, your presentation of it as a canape is just the visual I needed to inspire me to breath some new life into my old favorite. Thank you for bringing this recipe to the attention of the masses!
I have become obsessed with your blog lately..and I made this today for a quick open faced sandwich with a melted veggie slice. Only I substituted Miso Mayo (Garlic and Dill) with vegenaise and it was *AMAZING!*
Thanks for keeping up with such an amazing and inspiring blog!
I’m new to the blog world..and I send all my readers over there!
These are called Watermelon radishes. (I read it on the back of a box of Bunny Love cereal by Annie’s, coincidentally a day after I read this recipe!)
i just made this on my lap in front of my laptop! So easy and good! didint have mayo so i just upped the mustard a little (bad choice) and used plain yoghurt (good choice) and it turned out great! also upped the paprika and pepper by a good lot (i like spicy) and ate them with millet crackers! yummm :D
I just made this and MAN O LIVE did it cure my tuna fish craving from back in the day. I put in some cucumber pickle chips in it, dijion mustard instead of regular mustard and celery and it was so good. My kids had two sandwiches each. This is going to be a regular in our house for sure!! thanks for sharing !
Wow! I just made this, and it’s goooood!
I was worried about making the whole can of chickpeas – but I’m glad I did. This is going to make a great sandwich once it’s nicely chilled.
I wonder what it is about chickpeas that makes a good mock-tuna salad? I know that our favorite punk rock vegan Isa Chandra Moskowitz has a recipe for mock tuna fish sandwiches that uses chickpeas and seaweed, for a really “fishy” flavour.
Your photos are gorgeous:)
I finally tried this…Don’t know why I waited so long, as now I’m kicking myself for missing out on such yumminess for so long. Even the omni hubby loved it! Yay for easy and heatless cooking!
This is what I’ve been craving for years! Deelishous!, the only thing I added was a few dashes of cumin because I love that stuff.Mahalos!
i just made this last night, it was so good & i’m eating it now at work for lunch!
i recently gave up all animal products (except honey) and found your blog and am so inspired! i headed over to harvest on centre and bought a ton of stuff to make 3 of your recipes. it’s been so new and fun for me! thank you!
It has long been looking for this information, Thank you for your work.
I made this on Saturday using my food processor because I was in a hurry and didn’t have time to mash it up. It ended up being really thick, so I added extra lemon juice and some tahini…. it came out awesome and me and my girls ate it up.
omg these look amazing! Where do I get them???
I’d like to invite you to have a look on a funny home-made decoration – the radish mouse on cold spread.
http://hubschrauber.wordpress.com/2008/12/18/maus-auf-brot-hors-doeuvre/
Best regards from Germany
Rosemarie
This chickpea spread is great on sandwiches. I like to add scallions and tiny bits of red pepper.
For a change, it’s nice to leave out the paprika and pepper, and add a layer of chopped marinated artichoke hearts!
Thank you for this recipe!!
I had to make a bunch of appetizers for a bday party and to save money was trying to incorporate what I already had in my reserves.
I had recently purchased watermelon radishes and they were so beautiful I wanted a recipe that showed them off :)
I just made this for the first time and just finished my first bite.
yum!!!!
The only difference was all I had was Wasabi mayonaise, so I used that so I didn’t have to buy any more mayo. (it wasn’t vegan, but if you just added a touch of wasabi to the vegan mayo I’m sure it would be the same).
Anyways, fabulous the way the flavors all meld together and beautiful too!
Ohmygoodness. These are so beautiful. I wish I knew where to find these radishes! I’ll go hunting soon.
Hm that sounds good but I would like to know more details.
Your news is a cool stuff man, keep it going.
The radishes are stunning. What a beautiful little bite.
That’s good man, keep it going.
Good story for me but please more details.
Good information to me.