If you love caesar salad, this one’s for you. These caesar smashed chickpea sandwiches come from Brandi Doming’s new cookbook Vegan Wholesome. It’s one of her most popular lunch recipes – and for good reason. It’s creamy, tangy, and super easy to prep, no cooking required. You just mash chickpeas with her cashew-based caesar dressing and pile it onto your favorite bread. It’s that simple.

The sandwich has everything you want in a quick lunch: crunch from red onion, richness from the dressing, and a protein boost from the chickpeas. Doming even makes extra dressing so you can spread more on the bread or save some for salads. You can also add toppings like cherry tomatoes, greens, or even seeds for more texture.

These caesar smashed chickpea sandwiches are the kind of plant-based recipe you’ll want to make ahead and eat all week. Perfect for packed lunches, picnics, or lazy weekend bites.

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Making the sandwiches

This popular vegan recipe takes the flavor of a caesar salad and puts it into a high protein sandwich.

Caesar smashed chickpea sandwiches with tomato and lettuce

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Prep Time20

Servings

Ingredients

2 (15-ounce) cans low-sodium chickpeas drained and rinsed
3/4 cup (180g) Caesar Dressing (recipe follows) plus more to taste
½ teaspoon fine sea salt plus more to taste
½ cup (120g) finely diced red onion
16 slices bread of choice
Optional toppings: any that you like I used cherry tomatoes, lettuce, and hemp hearts/sesame seeds

For the Caesar Dressing

¼ cup (60g) brine from a can of water-packed artichoke hearts
¼ cup (60g) fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons (30g) Dijon mustard
1 cup raw cashews 140g; see Note or ¾ cup sunflower seeds (112g)
½ teaspoon garlic powder
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
¼ teaspoon fine sea salt plus more to taste

Instructions

In a large bowl, combine the chickpeas, dressing, and salt and mash until the dressing is evenly incorporated and the chickpeas are mashed but still have texture.
Add the red onion and stir until mixed. Taste and add more salt, if desired.
Depending on how salty (or not) your chickpeas were, it will affect how much salt you’ll need.
Spread the chickpea mixture over half of the bread slices. (When assembling the sandwiches, I like to spread extra Caesar dressing on the bread like a “mayo” and as an extra boost of Caesar flavor.)
Add any toppings you like and close the sandwiches.

For the Caesar Dressing

In a high-powered blender, combine the artichoke brine, lemon juice, 1⁄4 cup (60g) water, the mustard, cashews, garlic powder, pepper, and salt and blend until completely smooth.
It is a thick dressing, so you will have to scrape down the sides a couple of times to get it all to blend. Keep going until completely smooth.
The dressing should be thick and creamy. Taste and add more salt, if desired.

If you do not have a high-powered blender (such as a Vitamix), you need to soak the cashews in a bowl of water to cover overnight. When ready to cook, drain and process in a food processor (which works better than a weak blender

This recipe is reposted with permission from Vegan Wholesome by Brandi Doming. Photo credit: Kim Schaffer Photography. Find the cookbook here, and follow Doming on Instagram, Facebook, or visit TheVegan8.com for more.

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