Chickpea Salad Wraps

Ah, the humble chickpea! The little legume that could. If you're not familiar with chickpeas, you may have heard them called by their alternate name, garbanzo beans. You know, like Ronald Reagan's lesser-known cinematic hit:

Or if that doesn't ring a bell, they're also called Bengal grams, Egyptian peas, cecis, ceces, or chanas. Having so many different names could have to do with the fact that they've been around for over 7,500 hundred years, making them one of the oldest cultivated legumes on earth. Take that, Ancient Grains Cheerios!

Fortunately for all of us, chickpeas were not lost to antiquity and have continued to be cultivated to this day. Now you can find them in the grocery store in cans and dried in bags, or in this delicious lunch entree. (Or quick dinner entree, depending on your day.) On my perpetual quest to find more hearty vegetarian meals, I count these chickpea salad wraps as a watershed discovery. They're filling, flavorful, and pack a nutritional punch that is not to be trifled with. A half cup of chickpeas alone contains over 20% of your daily value of protein and an impressive 8 grams of fiber. 

In this recipe, you can pretty much mess around with the ingredients in any amount you like. I am infamously gluttonous in my fondness for mayo, so I prefer to add that with a bit of a heavy hand, but you could always cut back. Same goes for any of the other ingredients--except the chickpeas themselves, and the lavash, assuming you intend to eat it as a wrap and not straight out of the bowl. Though I won't say you won't be tempted...

Chickpea Salad Wraps
(Inspired by Allrecipes.com)

Ingredients:

2 15-oz. cans chickpeas/garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
1/4 c. onion, diced fine
1/3 c. celery, diced fine
1/2 c. mayonnaise
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 1/2 tsp. dried dill weed
salt and pepper, to taste

4 whole wheat pitas or lavash bread

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, mash chickpeas until they reach a consistency you like. (I prefer them to still be a bit chunky, not too smooth.)

2. Add all remaining ingredients except pitas and mix, seasoning with salt and pepper to taste.

3. Serve in pitas or lavash wraps.

Serves 4.