Sticky Sesame Chickpea Recipe (In 15 minutes!)

Easy, flavorful, and packed with plant protein, these sesame chickpeas are a vegan chickpea recipe that is a quick and delicious dinner the whole family will love. It’s ready in just 15 minutes and is great to meal prep for the week. Plus, it’s totally kid approved!

This post was originally published in February 2019, but has been updated as of December 30, 2019 with new photos, but the recipe is exactly the same.

I have a thing for super easy dinners. These sticky sesame chickpeas, sesame noodles, chana masala and these Mexican stuffed sweet potatoes are my three favorites at the moment.

But I’m partial to these sesame chickpeas because they literally take 15 minutes to make and have so much flavor your taste buds are going to explode.

Plus, this sesame sauce can be used on so many things. From chickpeas, to tofu, tempeh, salmon, chicken, noodles, cauliflower, or any kind of buddha bowl! It’s a versatile recipe that is loaded with flavor.

Orange Chickpeas, General Tso’s Chickpeas, Mediterranean Chickpeas, I just love chickpeas!! This is the perfect recipe to use up those canned chickpeas that have been sitting in your pantry for months on end!

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How to make sesame chickpeas

Drain and rinse the chickpeas until no bubbles remain. Set them aside as you prepare the rest of the ingredients.

Mince the garlic (I like using this garlic press so it’s very finely minced) and add to a saute pan with 1 tbsp avocado oil. Saute until the garlic is slightly golden brown and very fragrant.

Whisk together the arrowroot powder and 2 tbsp vegetable broth in a bowl and set aside. We’ll be using this in a minute to help thicken the sesame sauce. You can also use chicken stock or water instead.

To the pan with the garlic, add the sesame oil, tamari (or soy sauce if not GF), maple syrup, ginger, rice vinegar, and the remaining vegetable broth. Whisk together.

Re-whisk the arrowroot mixture to make sure no clumps formed at the bottom and add to the saute pan with the rest of the sauce. Whisk together.

Cook over medium/low heat until the mixture starts to bubble.

Once it is bubbling around the edges, give it a quick stir and add in the chickpeas and carefully fold the sauce over the chickpeas until they are well coated.

The sauce will start to thicken, keep stirring so the sauce covers the chickpeas. Let the chickpeas cook until the sauce is nice and thick. The chickpeas will also darken as they absorb the sauce, this is good since it yields major flavor!

After 5 or so minutes or once the sauce is thick, turn off the heat and allow all of the flavors to blend together for an additional 5 minutes.

How to serve this recipe

My favorite way to have these chickpeas is with white rice, steamed broccoli, and scallions or chives to top it all off!

It’s also delicious with quinoa, bok choy, sautéed spinach and a sprinkle of sesame seeds on top. You really can’t go wrong. This sesame sauce can also be reused for chicken, salmon, tofu, cauliflower, or any other protein.

You can even add it to my peanut noodles, or sesame noodles with extra veggies of choice.

Make it into a stir fry with tons of veggies, rice, quinoa, cauliflower rice, or anything you have on hand.

Recipe tips, tricks and notes

• Be sure to use a high quality toasted sesame oil. Not all sesame oils are created equal and you want to make sure you have one that is very flavorful!

• Once prepared, this vegan chickpea recipe will keep in the fridge for about 5 days. You’ll know it’s gone back when it starts to smell! Beans give off a pretty bad stench in the fridge, so you’ll want to throw them out if they get to this point!

• To reheat this recipe, add it to a pan with a splash of veggie broth or oil so it gets nice and saucy.

• Chickpeas, also known as garbanzo beans, are naturally gluten free, and so is this whole recipe! Be sure to use tamari (gluten free soy sauce) if you have a gluten intolerance or allergy.

• You can use cornstarch or tapioca starch in place of the arrowroot powder. A neutral flour like brown rice flour should also work, but I have only tried this recipe with arrowroot powder and cornstarch.

• If using chickpeas cooked from fresh, sub every 1 can with 1.5 cups cooked chickpeas. Canned chickpeas do not need to be soaked or cooked, but I do suggest soaking raw chickpeas before cooking them.

• This sesame sauce does need a bit of sweetener to really round out the flavors. I usually opt for maple syrup or honey, but you can also try brown sugar or coconut sugar. If you want a lower sugar option, you can cut back to 1-2 tbsp in place of 3. I don’t recommend cutting out the sugar entirely because it does help make the sauce sticky.

Try these easy dinner recipes next!

• Mushroom Broccoli Rigatoni with Lemon Garlic Cream Sauce
• Easy Dairy Free Pesto with Pasta
• Mexican Quinoa Stuffed Sweet Potatoes
• Sheet Pan Sesame Tofu and Vegetables
• 15 Minute Sesame Noodles

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