This chickpea salad and avocado smash sandwich is easy peasy, vegan, and gluten-free!

I’m so excited to share the first guest post on Choosing Chia by Gina Fontana from Healthy Little Vittles!

Gina is a certified health coach, recipe developer, food photographer and blogger based in Columbus, Ohio, creating gluten-free, vegan, plant-based recipes that take 30-minutes or less to prepare. You can find her recipes and read more about her health journey on her Healthy Little Vittles blog.

So without further ado, here is her post!

Chickpea Salad and avocado smash sandwich

Sandwiches are just one of those go-to staples. They are easy and filling, and you can be as
creative with them as you want!

Essentially you can layer almost anything between two slices of
bread for a hardy, delicious lunch. When I went gluten-free, my sandwich game went way down.
Bread is just one of those things that I was so sad to give up, I mean- me and bread, we’re pretty
close, you see.

And gluten-free bread just wasn’t the same, until recently. Gluten-free bread has
come a very long way!

Then, I decided to adapt a more vegan lifestyle. So now the question you may be asking is, ‘why
are you blogging about a gluten-free sandwich that has no meat or cheese on it’? Well, I am glad
you asked- let me introduce you to this Chickpea Salad + Avocado Smash Sandwich!

These chia-based everything bagels are soft and delicious. Avocado is creamy and I pretty much
put avocado on everything, so it’s no surprise that it ended up in this Chickpea Salad + Avocado
Smash Sandwich. Also- did you know that avocado is totally the new mayo? Genius!

The chickpeas add some plant-based protein and when mixed with my garlic tahini cumin yogurt
sauce, it makes for one yummy chickpea salad. I then added tomato (because what’s a sandwich
without tomato?!) and spinach subbing in as lettuce. I finished off this sandwich with more
smashed avocado because, why not? (Plus I hate saving half an avocado and then it goes all
brown and mushy).

This chickpea salad and avocado smash sandwich is

Vegan
Gluten-free
High in protein
High in fibre

Now I do warn you, that it is a messy sandwich, but I think a sandwich worth eating will always
leave a little mess behind.

Chickpea salad and avocado smash sandwich

Author: Gina Fontana
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 15 minutes
Yield: 4 sandwiches
Category: Lunch
Cuisine: American

Description

A healthy sandwich loaded with smashed chickpeas, avocado, and veggies!

Ingredients

Sandwich

Everything bagel or bread of choice (I used O’Doughs)
1 avocado
1 can chickpeas
1 tomato
Spinach

Garlic Tahini Cumin Yogurt

2/3 cup vegan yogurt (greek style) (I used Rippl vanilla unsweetened)
2 tsp minced garlic
1/4 cup tahini
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/4-1/2 tsp cumin (adjust according to taste preference)
water to thin (if desired)

Instructions

Make your garlic tahini cumin yogurt sauce by blending or whisking all ingredients
together.
Drain and rinse your chickpeas and place into your food processor/blender and pulse until
they are all broken into very small pieces- almost blended, but be careful not to blend
them into hummus! Then place them into a medium bowl.
Combine the chickpeas with 1/4 – 1/2 cup of your yogurt sauce (depending on how
creamy you like your salad)
Cut your avocado, spoon it into a bowl and smash it with a fork.
Assemble your sandwich with smashed avocado, chickpea salad, spinach, and tomato.