The “What Happened to Whole Foods’ Vegan Chik’n Salad?” Vegan (or not) Chicken Salad Recipe
Meaghan here with a vegetarian confession. Sometimes I crave chicken salad and I go to Whole Foods for their vegan chick’n salad. A few months ago I got the hankering, went up there and… it tasted all off to me. Did they change the recipe or maybe it was just my store having a bad day?
Anyway, yesterday was a fabulous day for us, but extremely exhausting. By 2pm I NEEDED A VEGAN CHIK’N SALAD.
I was car-less and didn’t feel like riding my bike a dozen miles to go get some “maybe ok” chick’n salad at Whole Foods (or accidentally spending as much money as I usually do there)…so I made my own and I have to say I’m very pleased!
Our new That’s Shallotta Flavor seasoning was PERFECT for this assignment. (Easily make this for carnivores by using real chicken and non vegan mayo)…
- Prep Time: 10
- Total Time: 10 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
- Category: meat alternative
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- 2 cups cooked vegan chicken – we used Sweet Earth Foods’ Mindful Chik’n Plant-Based Strips (or use real cooked chicken if you prefer)
- 4 celery stalks, diced
- 1 cup @followyourheart Vegenaise – we like the soy-free one (or use mayo made with eggs if you prefer that)
- 1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard (Do you have any Grey Poupon?)
- 2 Tablespoons organic parsley
- 1 1/2 teaspoons of our That’s Shallotta Flavor Herb & Shallot Organic Seasoning
- 1 teaspoon organic celery seed
- Few splashes of lemon juice to taste
- Organic fresh-ground black Malabar pepper to taste
- Optional spinach or greens as a base
Instructions
Toss everything in a big bowl and mix.
Can eat right away, but gets even better after it sits in the fridge for a few hours.
This looks nothing like the ingredients in the WF mock chicken salad I’ve purchased here at WF in Texas, but I’m willing to try it and I just bought the shallot seasoning! I’ll report back.
FYI here are the ingredients listed on the WF “Salad Chix Mock Sonoma Chef’s Case ” on Amazon. It’s literal vegan crack. I miss it so much.
Soy Nuggets (soybean protein, soy fiber, condensed wheat protein, water, soybean oil, sea salt, vegetarian seasonings [soy amino acids, vegetable extract, and sea salt]), Sauce (water, rock sugar, wheat syrup, white and red pepper, sesame seed oil), Vegan Mayonnaise (expeller pressed canola oil, water, distilled vinegar, sugar, salt, mustard seed, pea protein isolate, pea protein, potato protein, lemon juice concentrate, tamarind seed gum, natural flavor), Celery, Grapes, Pecans, Apple Cider Vinegar, Poppy Seeds, Agave Nectar, Salt, Organic White Pepper.
Awesome! Thanks for that info. I’ve never had that Sonoma one but now I want to try to recreate it. I never looked at the WF ingredients but just kinda went for same texture and flavor profiles, so not an exact dupe. Hope you like it! Would love to hear your thoughts!
The recipe definitely changed. I noticed it a year or two ago. I don’t buy it anymore. I wish I knew what meat substitute they used. I’ll give this one a try.
I moved to Texas in 2013 and bought the vegan chicken until it became unavailable during Covid. They told me they could not get the ingredients. Anyway after it returned the taste was just awful. Tried buying it for several months BLAH! Threw it out.
Now it is May of 2024 and gave it another try after a year and 1 half and voila! Tastes great. I have told them what happened and they said they would tell the chef but whatever.
Yeah I again love this stuff. My Whole Foods store is off William Cannon in Austin. Cheers!
Oh you give me hope! 🙂 I am going to try it again and hopefully all of the Whole Foods went back to the old recipe! Thank you for posting!
Posting in 2025 still sad they haven’t brought it back! I’ve actually noticed less and less vegan ready made foods available. Ohio
Right? Every time I go I hope to see it back!
I use soy curls from butler foods and it’s really close to the original Whole Foods one.
Ooo! Good idea, thanks for sharing!