No Mayo Cilantro Chicken Salad

Recently I posted my Cilantro Lime Hummus recipe, which I make as an alternative to traditional bean-based hummus. Instead of the usual legume-fest, my Cilantro Lime Hummus uses raw zucchini – but you can’t really tell, I promise! Someone asked me what I eat it with usually and, honestly, there’s nothing crazy exciting about my raw veggies and “hummus” dip habit. But I did mention that it makes a great dressing for a chicken salad: that’s one way I will use up the last of a batch if I have roasted a chicken in the same week.

No Mayo Cilantro Chicken Salad

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The problem was, however, that I usually make that recipe with tahini which, while delicious, doesn’t fit into the Autoimmune Protocol I’m doing right now because it is made from sesame seeds. Bummer. So I did what I usually do – played around with the recipe until it worked without the tahini so that I could use it in place of mayo for my Cilantro Chicken Salad.

I didn’t miss the flavor of the tahini when making up this dressing for my Cilantro Chicken Salad, but the consistency was a little off. The tahini added an amount of body to the sauce that needed to be replaced. I didn’t want to add too much more liquid, though, as that would have made it too thin. So I skimmed some coconut cream from the top of a chilled can of coconut milk. I don’t know about you, but my kitchen is cold enough now that all of my coconut milk is inadvertently “chilled”! I added that to my mini food processor, gave everything a whizz together and now had a much thicker sauce that could double as a mayo replacement.

No Mayo Cilantro Chicken Salad

So why is this (tahini free) dressing so awesome for my Cilantro Chicken Salad? It’s egg, nut & seed free – making it suitable for those who are following an Autoimmune Protocol or just avoiding those things. It’s also a little bit sneaky in that the zucchini base means that what your body tastes as creamy Cilantro Chicken Salad is also giving you the extra boost from a not-so-visible added vegetable! Woop!

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No Mayo Cilantro Chicken Salad

This Cilantro Chicken Salad is mayo free thanks to a vegetable based secret ingredient! It is egg, nut and seed free, too!

  • Author: Rachael Bryant / Meatified
  • Prep Time: 10 mins
  • Total Time: 10 mins

Ingredients

Scale
  • 4 cups cooked chicken, chopped
  • 2 cups zucchini, peeled and chopped
  • 1/3 cup coconut cream (from the top of a chilled can of coconut milk)
  • 1 tsp dried garlic
  • 1/2 cup of fresh cilantro
  • Juice of 1/2 lemon
  • Salt to taste

Instructions

  1. Add all ingredients except the chicken to a food processor or blender. Process until combined. If the sauce is a little thick, add a splash of water or extra lemon juice.
  2. Place the chopped chicken in a bowl and add approximately 1 cup of the sauce; stir through until coated. Add more sauce until the salad is your preferred consistency.
  3. This is best eaten straight away as the zucchini will release water into the mixture that will make the salad separate. If you’re making this ahead of when you’ll serve it, pop the processed zucchini mixture into a sieve over a bowl in the fridge and leave there until chilled. Discard the liquid that drains through the sieve before folding the chicken into the zucchini mixture.

 

38 comments

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  2. I would love it if you joined us at the AIP Recipe Roundtable (a weekly linkup for the AIP community). I imagine you’re very busy, but it’s so nice to gather these types of recipes in one place. The Paleo Mom & Autoimmune-Paleo are regular contributors, along with some non-AIP bloggers like Domestic Man and Clothes That Make the Girl. We’d love to have you join us, and this recipe looks fabulous: http://www.phoenixhelix.com/2013/11/20/paleo-aip-recipe-roundtable-4/

    1. I’m so glad you reminded me about this! I’ve added this recipe to your roundup for this week and I’m going to set up a reminder on my calendar so I don’t forget about it next time 🙂

    1. The garlic, cilantro and lemon should hide any coconut flavor – I didn’t notice any coming through personally. But since the coconut cream is only there for thickness, you could blend everything else together and either leave out the coconut cream (although it won’t be as thick) OR add it 1 tbl at a time to make sure the taste doesn’t bother you 🙂

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    1. It will refrigerate just fine for a day or two, but you may find the zucchini releases a little water, so you’ll want to give it a stir 🙂

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