Bethany's Vegan Kitchen

Chickpea based “tuna” or chuna, along with salad vegetables and macaroni in a creamy dressing. I use crispy seaweed snacks to give a fishy flavour to this. I used some by the brand ITSU which seems to be available in most supermarkets, I bought mine from Tesco. I find that the flavour of seaweed snacks can really vary from brand to brand. So depending on what you use, you might want to use a little, taste, then add more if it’s not enough

Yield; 4-6 servings Cook time; 15 minutes

You’ll need;

1. 250g (this is the dry weight) macaroni
2. One 200g tin of sweetcorn, drained
3. One 400g tin of chickpeas, drained
4. One bunch of spring onions, thinly sliced
5. Three gherkins, finely diced
6. Seaweed finely diced (to taste, I used two thirds of a packet)
7. Four tablespoons of egg free mayonnaise
8. One tablespoon of lemon juice
9. Optional – a few drops of red food colouring

Method

• Start by boiling the pasta as per the instructions on the packet. While the pasta cooks, prepare the rest of the ingredients
• Drain the water out of the tinned sweetcorn and add it into a mixing bowl, along with the spring onion and gherkin
• Mix together three tablespoons of mayonnaise and the lemon juice, then add that into the mixing bowl too
• Once the pasta is cooked, drain away the water and then rinse the pasta with cold water. Drain the water again, give it a final rinse in cold water, drain, then leave it to dry
• Add the macaroni and the seaweed into the mixing bowl and fold it through to fully combine. Finely dicing the seaweed with ensure you don’t have large pieces of seaweed, which may look a little off putting
  
• Now for the “tuna” part. Drain the liquid away from the tinned chickpeas and add them into a small bowl, with a little red food colouring and the last tablespoon of mayonnaise. Mash them roughly with a fork until they look like this
  
• Add this into the mixing bowl, fold it through the pasta, and then allow it to chill in the fridge for an hour before serving

It’s lovely on its own, or as a side along with other dishes. It would also be great kept in the fridge for lunches for a few days, or as a side dish for a barbecue or picnic