2 high protein lunch ideas - ready in under 20 minutes! Vegan & Vegetarian Meal Ideas

So it's hot, you know, like sweating from existing kind of hot. So yeah, turning on the oven is out of the cards. Therefore, today we're keeping the house cool with two no-cook, high-protein lunch ideas. Chickpea chicken salad and chickpea tuna salad. Both are super quick, refreshing, and come together in less than 20 minutes. All right, let's get into it. Here's our lineup for the first one. Chickpeas, celery, plant mayo, walnuts, lemon, and some seasonings. Now, when I first went vegan, this was one of the first lunches that actually stuck. It gave me the deli feel without making me feel like I was missing anything. Herby, creamy, crunchy, and all-around great sandwich. Or to be eaten with a spoon standing over the sink. I won't judge. Let's start with prepping our ingredients. First, we're going to start by chopping up our celery. We just want a rough chop. Nothing needs to be perfect. We're adding everything we've prepped before this recipe into a food processor as we go. That means fewer dishes and faster prep. Cut your lemon in half and set it aside. We don't want to squeeze in our lemon juice just yet because we want it to touch all of our ingredients rather than just sitting at the bottom of our food processor. Chop your walnuts. These, maybe I would say they're optional, but add a satisfying crunch that I personally prefer. This kind of keeps me from wanting to have chips with my sandwich, which in my case are great because I could really devour some chips. Next, drain and rinse your chickpeas and toss them into the food processor. If you're like me and you love food but you hate dirty dishes, you could simply rinse and drain the chickpeas in the can rather than adding them completely to a separate bowl first. Add in some plant-based mayo and right behind that, add in your lemon juice to the food processor. I'm repurposing a grater as a seed catcher when squeezing my lemon into the food processor. Typically, I use my hand as that seed catcher, but then you have this unsolicited discovery of like a hangnail or paper cut that you say to yourself, I could have went the rest of the week without that. Lastly, let's add in our seasonings. Dried dill, black pepper, garlic powder, Italian seasoning, and salt. Adding the seasonings to the food processor last makes it so that all those flavors get evenly distributed. Otherwise, you end up with that one bite that has too much seasoning or that one bite that has absolutely none. And trust me, no one wants to experience that rollercoaster of emotion. Remove the lid, then stir. Put it back on and pulse a couple times more. Just be careful not to over process this. We're going for a salad texture, not hummus. That's a different video. All right, salad number one, done. Now let's move to the second one, our chickpea tuna salad. For the second one, you're going to need chickpeas, hearts of palm, celery, red onions, capers, lemon, dulce flakes, plant mayo, chia seeds, and our seasonings. Wait, let me just say this. I was never a fan of tuna. So my wife helped me create this one. Otherwise, this recipe would have been completely the box of chocolates idea from Forrest Gump. To start, chop your celery just like we did before. Next up, dicing half a red onion. Red onions are pretty mild when raw. Therefore, they won't overpower the rest of our flavors. Again, slice your lemon in half and set aside and mince a small spoonful of capers. The capers add that salty briny kick that gives it that from the sea vibe. Once we're finished mincing our capers, we're going to shred our hearts of palm using the two fork method. This is where you hold the hearts of palm in place with one fork while using the other to pull it apart or better yet, shred it. This trick gives you that flaky tuna-like texture without needing the fish. And last but not least, let's prep our chickpeas. Lay your drained and rinsed chickpeas out on a baking tray and smash them with a fork. This helps break down our chickpeas without blending it into a paste. I used to do these in a bowl, but doing it on a baking tray, you know, like a flat surface is much easier. Now that our chickpeas are smashed, move them aside. And in a small bowl, we're going to add black pepper, salt, garlic powder, Old Bay, and dulce flakes. If you're not familiar with dulce flakes, let me help out. The flakes give a, I would say salty, slightly smoky, and umami-rich flavor with a subtle seafood taste. But if you're having a hard time locating these, you could also sub it out for nori which may be easier to find at like your local grocery store. Seaweed would be my third choice here if you had to go that route. Whisk that seasoning together and set aside. And now, let's combine everything. In a bowl, add your smashed chickpeas, shredded hearts of palm, celery, onions, capers, and our seasonings. Very human of me, but I started mixing all the ingredients together and realized I forgot to add plant mayo and chia seeds. Add those in and once that's all mixed together, you're ready to chow down. Serve it on your favorite sandwich bread, in a lettuce wrap, or scoop it, as I said before, straight from the bowl. Two chickpea salads, both easy, filling, delicious, and perfect for meal prep. Also, if you're making this for kids, just don't say the word tuna. When I was a kid, that was a turn off to me. I was like, who you tuning? I'll tune you right back. Both recipes can be found linked in the description or head straight on over to my website, makeitdairyfree.com. Thank you so much for watching. I appreciate you. I love you. And until next time, believe in good. Peace.