A vegan twist on this take-out classic, Sweet and Sour Chickpeas are speedy, saucy, and a little bit spicy!
What’s tastier than take-out, speedier than delivery, and downright guaranteed to rock your socks?
THIS GUY!!!
Well.. these guys. THESE CHICKPEAS!
Forgive me, as I have 100% lost my mind over how good this recipe is.
These sweet and sour chickpeas only take 30 minutes to make but taste like they’ve been slow simmered for hours. They’re supremely saucy, flavorful, and filling.
Easy Vegan Sweet and Sour Chickpeas
Feel free to make these saucy seasoned chickpeas as spicy or as mild as you’d like.
For a milder dish, simply leave out the Sriracha chili sauce. For spicy, add 1-2 teaspoons for a kiss of heat and even more for full-on fiery deliciousness.
As written, the recipe is vegan, vegetarian, dairy-free, gluten-free, plant-based, low-fat, and full of garbanzo bean goodness.
take-out style side dishes
I served my saucy chickpeas with fluffy white rice and steamed broccoli, but when it comes to this delish dinner, there are so many sides to choose from!
For a pre-dinner snack or appetizer, feel free to whip up a bowl of Spicy Sambal Edamame.
In place of rice you can make quinoa, rice noodles, cauliflower rice, quinoa fried rice, or even cauliflower fried rice!
For your veggies, you can whip up a mix of several varieties or simply choose your favorite. Some tasty options are broccoli, asparagus, snow peas, green beans, zucchini, snap peas, carrots, onion, red bell pepper, and/or bok choy.
Sweet and Sour Chickpeas
Ingredients
- ½ cup orange juice
- 3-4 TBSP tomato paste
- ½ TBSP corn starch (arrowroot/tapioca starch works too)
- 2 TBSP water
- 1.5 TBSP apple cider vinegar
- 1.5 TBSP low-sodium soy sauce (gluten-free or regular)
- 2 tsp brown sugar
- 1-2 tsp Sriracha
- 15 oz canned chickpeas, drained and rinsed
SERVE WITH…
- cooked white rice
- steamed veggies: broccoli, asparagus, green beans, etc…
- sliced green onions to garnish
- toasted sesame seeds to garnish
- crushed red pepper flakes for a kiss of heat
Instructions
- In a medium bowl combine orange juice, tomato paste, corn starch, water, apple cider vinegar, soy sauce, and brown sugar. For the Sriracha, add 1 tsp for a medium heat and 2+ tsp for a spicier sauce. I love mine with 2 TBSP Sriracha. Whisk well and set aside.
- Add sauce to a medium pan or skillet and set to medium heat. Allow sauce to cook and bubble, for 10 minutes, sirring often to evenly distribute heat and prevent sticking. Once sauce has thickened, add chickpeas and reduce heat to low. Cover and allow to cook an additional 10 minutes until the sauce is nice and thick and the chickpes are warmed though.
- Top with sliced green onion and toasted sesame seeds and serve with your choice of veggies and grains. Enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
Recipe adapted from Emiliee Eats.
If you get a chance to try these tasty vegetarian sweet and sour chickpeas, let me know!
Leave some love in the comment form below or tag your photos with @peasandcrayons on Instagram so I can happy dance over your creation. I can’t wait to see what you pair with these delightfully saucy chickpeas.
Questions & Reviews
This is a great recipe. Super easy and fast, but also really tasty!! Even my husband who is very skeptical about vegan food loved it.
Can you use coconut aminos in place of soy sauce?
Yes of course!
I love trying any chickpea recipe and was so excited to try this too but I felt this needed something to be added to give the flavour a bit more oomph. A previous commenter mentioned they added ginger so I wonder if this would have made it better for me. It would also be nice if there was more sauce (personal preference) but that can also be easily rectified by maybe doubling the sauce ingredients.
Saved as a favorite, I like your blog!
I added ginger to this and I think it made a world of difference. Once I did that it did taste just like a sweet and sour sauce.
LOVE it with ginger! Whenever I have some handy I add it to everything, lol! Thanks KM!
Is it a 15 ounce can of chickpeas water included or is it 15 ounces of chickpeas not counting the water? Asking since a normal can of chickpeas weighs 15 ounces but only has 7 ounces of actual chickpeas:)
Hi Niko! I used a 15 oz can of chickpeas. If you’re soaking and cooking from dried chickpeas (love doing this lately) you’ll use 1 and 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas.
If I could do it again, I would have baked the chickpeas in the oven first to get a different texture. Flavor is definitely there but to get more of a “meaty” texture, I would recommend baking them for 425 for 17 minutes.
Thanks Alyssa! I also love the texture of roasted chickpeas and you can 100% roast them before saucing for this recipe!
If your doing wfpb, can you sub the brown sugar for maple syrup?
Hi Norma! Yes absolutely! If needed, just add a little extra to taste.
Does this recipe call for fresh squeezed orange juice? Or did you use store-bought in the bottle?
Hi Elizabeth! I’ve used both and either can be used! xo
This is great!! I was skeptical because I’ve never made a chickpea dish like this but it was super easy and really tasty! Love the sauce.
Thank you Karen! I’m glad you gave the recipe a chance and enjoyed it! xoxo
Thanks, Jenn!
Your sweet & sour chickpeas were a super easy and fun addition to last night’s Asian inspired dinner at my house. Loved that everything your recipe called for was already in my pantry & fridge ?. Yummy, spicy (2 tsp+ Sriracha team)…and there’s a little of the chickpea tastebud party left over for my son’s lunchbox today. Lucky boy.
I’m prepared for my socks to be rocked with this recipe! This recipe looks ah-mazing!!
Thanks Beth!
This is simply a fantastic veggie friendly sweet and sour dinner and I love the sriracha sauce for a punch of heat – makes a great side on a sharing plate table too.
Thank you so much Lucy! So glad you’re loving the recipe!