Easy, flavorful, and packed with plant protein, these sesame chickpeas are a vegan chickpea recipe that are a quick and delicious dinner the whole family will love. They’re ready in just 15 minutes and are great to meal prep for the week.
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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!
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 my instant pot 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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Vegan Sticky Sesame Chickpea Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cans chickpeas
- 3-4 large cloves garlic
- 1 tbsp avocado oil or olive oil
- 1.5 tbsp toasted sesame oil
- 1/3 cup tamari or soy sauce
- 3 tbsp maple syrup
- 2 tsp rice vinegar
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger or 2 tsp fresh grated ginger
- 1 tbsp arrowroot powder
- 4 tbsp vegetable broth or water (divided)
Instructions
- Drain and rinse the chickpeas and set aside.
- Mince the garlic and add to a sauté pan with the avocado or olive oil. I suggest using a garlic press so it’s very finely minced and you don’t end up with any large pieces in the sauce.
- Sauté for a few minutes or until the garlic is very fragrant.
- In a small bowl combine the arrowroot powder and 2 tbsp of the vegetable broth and mix until no clumps remain. Set aside.
- To the sauté pan with the garlic, add in the tamari, toasted sesame oil, maple syrup, rice vinegar, ginger, and the additional 2 tbsp of vegetable broth. Whisk together.
- Add in the arrowroot mixture and stir.
- When bubbles start to form, add in the chickpeas and stir until they are well coated.
- Cook on low heat until the sauce becomes thick and sticky, about 5 minutes. stirring occasionally.
- Remove from the heat and let sit to allow the chickpeas to absorb all of the flavor.
- Serve with steamed broccoli, quinoa, or my instant pot rice and enjoy!
Carla
This one was DELICIOUS 🤤. I’m ready to try the cauliflower one next 🤗
Claire Cary
You’ll love it!!
Paige Fortney
Awesome recipe ! For the Nutition what is included in 1 bowl / 306 kal ?
Thanks !
Claire Cary
I don’t have exact amounts, but one serving is about 1/4 of the total recipe!
Tracey
This was so delicious, broke a record for how fast it was devoured!
Tianna
This is seriously one of my all time favorite recipes to make for dinner! It’s so easy and the best for meal prep. I look forward to the next time I make it! Thanks so much for this ❤️❤️
Claire Cary
You are so sweet, thank you! So happy you’re enjoying it 🙂
Danielle Ghaleb
Very easy to make, and very tasty!! Love love love!!!
Althea
This is excellent! Thank you for such an easy and tasty recipe.
Claire Cary
Thanks Althea! If you don’t mind leaving a star rating next time, I’d really appreciate it 🙂
Andy
Way too much tamari and garlic.
Claire Cary
Sorry it didn’t work out for you!
Juliana
Super surprised at just how delicious and easy this recipe was to whip up. Such a great weeknight meal. Love having another vegetarian Chinese option that isn’t just sauce smothered cauliflower.
Claire Cary
I feel you! So happy you liked it.
Nathalie
Hi Claire, all your recipes look awesome! It would be really great if there would be the possibility to also change the servings to one person. It’s not that easy to adjust it for me and I don’t like to eat the same thing the whole week 😅
Claire Cary
Hi Nathalie, I will keep this in mind for future recipes!
Alex
YES! So very good! Thank you for the recipe!
Claire Cary
So happy you liked it!!
Danielle
Make sure to add the chickpeas to the pan as instructed. I made the small mistake and waited until the pan was bubbling for a few minutes before adding the chickpeas. The texture didn’t come out right. But no worries, I quickly made another batch in less than a few minutes.
The flavor of this dish is amazing! It was so delicious that I’m making it again this week.
One small change I made, I brown sugar instead of maple syrup.
I served it over Seeds of Rice jasmine rice with roasted broccoli, carrots and onions.
Claire Cary
Thanks for the feedback Danielle! That sounds so delicious with the carrots and onions. YUM!
Sherwood
I was a little concerned with how powerful the sesame flavor was when I tasted these straight out of the pan, but after I had them on quinoa with some broccoli I fell in love. This makes an amazing work dinner, and I expect I’ll be making these again in the near future. This also turned me onto saucy chickpeas as a quick, easy, and healthy meal! I’m going to be stealing a sticky lemon sauce from a cauliflower recipe to try with chickpeas next. Thanks for the recipe!
Claire Cary
The flavor is pretty strong, but when paired with other things it always tastes so good! I’m so glad you like it. A lemon sauce sounds amazing!!
June
Made this for dinner 2 nights ago with brown jasmine rice and steamed broccoli. I added a bunch of green onion and sesame seeds at the end.It was so delicious and truly very easy and fast to make…Thank you for that!! Just ate the leftovers for lunch reheated as you suggested and it was just as yummy. Always searching for simple/fast vegan meals and I’m really looking forward to trying more of your recipes 🙂 I am planning on swapping the chickpeas for tofu one night… I think it will be really delicious with that sticky sauce!!
Claire Cary
This sauce is SO good with tofu! It honestly works well with a lot of things which is why I love it so much! If you don’t mind leaving a star rating on your next review, it really helps us out!
Alison @ Daily Moves and Grooves
Just made this today (halved because I only had one can of chickpeas!), and it’s delicious! I used flour instead of arrowroot starch, water instead of vegetable broth, and didn’t have rice wine vinegar…. all thing I’m sure would make it more excellent. But nevertheless it was fantastic! I’m eating it as I type this LOL.
Claire Cary
Hahaha I feel like I’m always eating and typing lol. So glad you liked it though, I make those substitutions sometimes too and it’s just as good!