Yurtastic Chickpea Salad

We returned from visiting Andrew's family and some friends in Ohio late Sunday evening, and my motivation for cooking interesting things has been a little diminished. My sleep cycle is all out of whack, I nearly fell asleep during my commute home yesterday. But cramming as much as possible into our little weekends over there is really important to me, so we make it work. It's strange having uprooted my life so many times, every new city starts to blend together - and it oddly makes my wanderlust even stronger. When I go visit somewhere I used to live, I'm suddenly eager to live somewhere new. It's like, the less attached I feel to one city, the less I feel like I belong to a city. I spent 12 fantastic years in Santa Barbara - it's where I grew up - but I don't feel any allegiance to it. I've lived in Sacramento, Berkeley, Columbus, OH...  now Indy. I'm not sure I'd call any of them home. But I tend to wear my cities like a badge of honor - I've lived here. I know this place. 

To curb my itchy feet, I try to plan exciting vacations. I'm not much of a camper, but I've really be into these yurts. They're like decked out huts. Camping, or "yurting" rather (that's not a real phrase, don't go around saying that), has 2 benefits - one, I can commune with nature at a distance and two, we can bring our dogs. I just have to find a yurt that let's us bring dogs...

Hopefully some day soon I'll be blogging from a yurt in a Canada. 

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yurt#mediaviewer/File:Gurvger.jpg

Anyway, I think this dish is perfect for your next yurt adventure. I plan on bringing some. It would stay nicely in a cooler and you can make larger batches fairly easily. There are a lot of great variations of chickpea salad if this one doesn't twirl your skirt up. Some of my favorites come form "Yeah, That 'Vegan' Shit",  where she uses nutritional yeast and kelp powder to create "mock tuna", and of course the PPK's minimalist variation, using traditional chicken salad ingredients. 

But I like to give new variations new twists. This chickpea salad sandwich packs a little heat using minced jalapeños and a touch of cayenne pepper. I opted for minced shallots rather than yellow onion. And of course, a heaping helping of vegenaise. 

Yurtastic Chickpea Salad
Makes 4 sandwiches   

1 standard can of chickpeas

1-2 tbsp minced jalapeño, fresh or jarred

1/4 tsp minced garlic

1 finely chopped shallot

a pinch of paprika

a pinch of cayenne pepper

salt & pepper to taste 

4 tbsp vegenaise

* Rinse your chickpeas in a colander in the sink. Place them in a high speed blender or a food processor & pulse 2 to 3 times to pulverize the beans, but don't let them get TOO mushy. You just don't want any whole beans.
* Place your blended chickpeas in a bowl and mix with the rest of the ingredients. You can refrigerate and eat for the next few days.
* I like to eat these with a little chipotle mustard on a whole wheat bun!