Not casually. Fanatically. Tuna salad was my lunch, my late-night snack, the thing I ordered when I didn't know what to order. Everyone who knows me knows this about me.

Then I got pregnant with our son, and the first thing my doctor wanted to talk about was tuna. Suddenly the food I reached for every day was the one I was supposed to keep to a minimum. The craving didn't get the memo.

So I started cooking. I tested and sampled more chickpea-forward recipes than I can count — different textures, different acids, different herbs, more mayo, less mayo, no mayo — chasing the exact thing that made tuna salad feel like tuna salad to me. I wanted something that would satisfy the craving while keeping both me and the baby safe. Nothing that tasted like a substitute.

The result is what you see here. It stopped being a stand-in and became the thing I wanted.

Now I make it in small batches, with ingredients you'd recognize from your own kitchen, and share it with people who want good food without a compromise attached. There are two versions: the Chickpea Tuna Salad, which brings the tuna back in alongside the chickpeas, and the Vegan Chickpea Salad — the tuna-free one that got me through those nine months.

Jessica Founder, So Good Salads