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Chickpeas tossed in sweet spicy firecracker sauce and cooked to thicken the sauce. Firecracker Chickpeas Served with a crunchy lettuce, carrot, red bell pepper salad, a light drizzle of peanut sauce and garnished with cilantro/scallions. Jump to Recipe
Make this! Oh yes, did I mention the Firecracker sauce. It is divine, and spicy… that name has “fire” in it.
You can also use the firecracker sauce as the dressing. For variation, use kale, greens, other veggies. Use lentils to make firecracker lentils. Serve over rice instead of salad. Add some blanched veggies to the thinned out sauce. Many variations! Depending on your salad and appetite, this serves 2 or 1. the recipe is easily doubled!
Firecracker Chickpeas! Yes! Crunchy Veggies, yes, and creamy PB Sauce. Use sunbutter to make a nut-free dressing.
More fun recipes from the blog
- Moroccan Chickpea Cauliflower Bowl with Herb sauce.
- Teriyaki Chickpea Bao Steamed buns
- Kung Pao Lentils
- Vegan Tinga bowl with Hearts of Palm, Chickpeas, Spanish
Steps:
Arrange the Salad ingredients to preference in a serving bowl. Top with firecracker chickpeas. Those chickpeas are spicyyy and addictive! And the bowl is totally not practical 🙂 I love the salad to a larger bowl to eat.
Dress with peanut sauce or firecracker sauce, cilantro and scallions. Serve
Crunchy Salad with firecracker Chickpeas and Peanut sauce
Ingredients
For the Salad:
- Chopped lettuce , or other crunchy greens
- Grated or thinly sliced carrots
- thinly sliced red bell pepper
- thinly slices zucchini or cucumber
- chopped cilantro , or scallions for garnish
- peanuts for garnish, optional
- 1 recipe Peanut sauce
- Or this Peanut Sauce
For the firecracker chickpeas:
- 15 oz can chickpeas, drained (save the aquafaba for meringue) or 1.5 cups cooked
- 1/2 tsp oil
- 1/4 tsp salt or to taste, depends on if chickpeas were salted
- 1/4 tsp cayenne
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp cornstarch , or other starch
- 1 tbsp hot sauce , such as frank's hot sauce
- 1.5 tsp sriracha , or other asian chile garlic sauce
- 1.5 to 2 tbsp rice vinegar
- 2 to 3 tbsp raw sugar , or brown sugar or other
- 2 tbsp water
Instructions
- Chop up the veggies, toss and place in serving bowl.
- In a skillet, add the chickpeas, oil, salt, cayenne, garlic and mix well. Cook over medium heat for a minute. Add cornstarch and mix to coat.
- Add the sauces, vinegar, water, sugar and mix well. Cook until the sauce thickens, stir occasionally. 4 to 5 minutes. Taste carefully and adjust heat and sweet if needed.
- Cool slightly, add to the salad bowl.
- Make the peanut sauce. Adjust consistency to preference for the dressing by adding more or less water. or add some coconut milk
- Drizzle the salad with peanut sauce, cilantro or scallions and serve.
- Alternatively, add a few tbsp more water to the firecracker chickpeas during cooking and use the firecracker sauce to dress the salad.
- For variation, use kale, greens, other veggies. Use lentils to make firecracker lentils.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Fantastic, delicious recipe!!!
Awesome !
Soooo good! Can’t wait to make this again. The firecracker chickpeas are easily adaptable to make less spicy. It’s fool proof as well — I accidentally put in all the chickpea ingredients at once in the skillet and it still worked out just fine.
Yay
I can’t wait to try this! I have tried some of you other recipes and love them. I follow you on instagram.
let me know how it turns out for you
Amazingly delicious! The combo of flavors is fantastic!
Ooh this was yummy and so pretty! I made it with no cayenne, and it was still at the top end of my chilliability. So thanks for including the tip about not adding the cayenne 🌶. And that peanut sauce is divine!
I have your cookbook and love it.
🌶.chilliabilty – my new favourite word! 🌶.🌶.🌶. i”m glad that you’re enjoying my cookbook – Thank you so much for your support 🌶.
Literally just finished eating this salad, SO good! I used almond butter and kept everything else the same. Thank you so much for this amazing recipe!
awesome!
I’m confused. The recipe for peanut sauce doesn’t contain coconut milk. So do you make that sauce and add coconut milk? Or is it a different peanut sauce?
The sauce is thick, so thin it out with coconut milk, i think some words got mushed there in the widget, i’ll update it
Hi Richa! I made this last night as an appetizer, and my family loved it! I love the combo of the firecracker chickpeas and the peanut butter dressing! Bring on the spicy! Thanks for a great recipe again!
Hi Richa,
This was super delish. My daughter loved it. And asked me to make her more chickpeas. Thanks again!
Thats awesome! long time.
Great idea with chipotle cashew dressing!