Lemon Dill Mashed Bean "Egg" Salad (The HealthNut Cookbook)
Never did I ever think you could toss a couple cans of chickpeas and cannellini beans into a food processor with an array of herbs and spices and a schlop of mayonnaise and be met with an incredibly delicious plant-based egg salad, but my dear friend, Nikole Goncalves, proved that dreams can come true with this recipe from her NEW book, The HealthNut Cookbook.
I am downright obsessed with this recipe – so much so, that I made it TWICE in one week! I also meal prepped a batch of the Smoky White Bean Kale Soup from The HealthNut Cookbook, and let me tell you, my digestion is freaking LOVING me this week with all of the fibre I’ve been feeding it from these bean & legume-based recipes (if ya know what I mean AKA insert poop emoji!).
I’m so proud of Nikole and everything she’s created, from her incredibly engaging YouTube channel, natural beauty product line, HealthNut Pup Shop and now with her very first cookbook, The HealthNut Cookbook! Like, is there anything this woman can’t do?! I should also mention she’s actually as super sweet as she appears online, which I can attest to after meeting her for the first time at her book launch party in September (but let’s be honest, when you’re Instagram pals, it really feels like you’ve known each other forever!).
I was posting about the recipes I made from her cookbook on Instagram last weekend and someone DM’d me to ask if the cookbook is actually good and worth buying? To be honest, I understand why this person was asking this. I’ve definitely picked up cookbooks in the past where I felt like I could’ve found similar recipes online and never really ended up using it, but this cookbook is most DEFINITELY worth picking up!
It is absolutely stunning and the recipes in it are all so exciting, and if all of the recipes are like the two I’ve tried so far, I can vouch for how delicious the recipes in the whole book are! Nikole spent some time in Bali, which shows through some of the recipes she put into the cookbook including the Korean Bibimbap (pg. 166) and Bali Mee Goreng (pg. 169). As you may or may not know, asian cuisine is my absolute FAVOURITE and these recipes are definitely next on my to-make list (okay, the Key Lime Pie in a Jar on pg. 199 might be up there too!).
All of the recipes in The HealthNut Cookbook are whole foods-based, which, as a #RealAssFood lover, I’m all about!
If you haven’t got your hands on this cookbook yet, I highly recommend picking up your copy on Amazon or at Chapters-Indigo. If you are a reader from the US, you can learn how to get The HealthNut Cookbook here. Or, you can test your luck and enter my contest on Instagram, which will give you an opportunity to win a FREE copy! If that sounds up your alley, you can enter over here.
But now, for the egg-less egg salad recipe that’s going to blow your mind! You can either enjoy this Lemon Dill Mashed Bean “Egg” Salad on a sandwich with all the fixings, or with crackers or cut up veggies.
Just a quick note on the mayonnaise front, as I know there can be some confusion around this. In all honesty, I don’t typically have mayonnaise kicking around the house, simply because I don’t use it in recipes very often. When it came to getting ingredients for this recipe, I realized I would need mayonnaise.
I knew there were “better” options than the conventional version out there, but when I compared the price and realized the “better” option was 3X the price as the conventional alternative, I thought to myself “surely, Hellmann’s Mayonnaise can’t be filled with as many low-quality ingredients as it used to be since mayonnaise really is just oil, eggs and lemon”. But, nope – I was wrong!
While I don’t like to victimize any food, I do like to encourage people to make choices that support their health and will help them to feel their best and when I saw soybean oil, sugar, natural flavours (which aren’t actually as natural as you think) and calcium disodium edta, I realized it was worth it to get the better version. If you’re wondering, I used Chosen Food’s Avocado Oil Mayonnaise for this recipe and gosh dangit, was it good! Word on the street is that you can find it at Costco as well, which will make it a bit easier on the wallet :).
Lemon Dill Mashed Bean “Egg” Salad
Serves 4 • Prep Time 10 minutes
Ingredients
1 cup canned chickpeas, rinsed and drained (or 1 cup cooked chickpeas)
1 cup canned cannellini beans, rinsed and drained (or 1 cup cooked cannellini beans)
1 green onion (white and light green parts only), sliced
Juice of 1⁄2 lemon
1⁄4 cup vegan or regular mayonnaise (I used Chosen Foods Avocado Oil Mayo)
1 tablespoon drained capers
1 teaspoon chopped fresh dill
1⁄2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1⁄2 teaspoon sea salt
1⁄4 teaspoon pepper
1⁄4 teaspoon sweet paprika
Directions
1. In a food processor, combine the chickpeas, cannellini beans, green onion, lemon juice, mayonnaise, capers, dill, turmeric, salt, pepper, and paprika.
Pulse for about 15 seconds, until smooth with a bit of texture.
Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Note: Try not to over process the beans or you will end up with hummus instead of an egg salad copycat!