BBQ Chickpea Tortilla Pizza. Vegan Recipe. Easily Glutenfree

Say hello to Barbecue Chickpeas! on a thin crust individual pizza. If you have cooked chickpeas or other beans and some barbecue sauce  ready, this meal comes together very easily.

Mix the chickpeas and sauce. Use tortillas or soft tacos or other flat breads, top with veggies, chickpeas, cheese, bake, eat! 
I used uncooked frozen Chapatis. Chapatis/Rotis are whole wheat flat breads. Some days I make them from scratch( the dough, rolling and stove top cooking) and some other days I use the frozen rolled out dough that we get easily at the Indian stores here. Here is how you can make them at home. I use oil or vegan butter as a ghee substitute. Or Use any flat-bread of choice. No kneading and rolling the dough required:)

You can eat these as thin crust pizza(super thin crust;) or fold them up like a taco. Ready in 20 minutes. Or fold them and grill into a Quesadilla. Dont want to bake? Make a wrap. 

If you make my barbecue sauce, it is gluten and soy-free. Use gf tortillas for gluten-free pizzas.
I usually cook chickpeas from scratch. Soak the dry chickpeas overnight and then pressure cook for 3-4 whistles. You can find local Chickpeas/garbanzo beans grown in the Pacific Northwest here. 

More Pizzas here.  or see the Recipe Index by category(which is too huge and I dont know what to do with it!).

When I was fostering dogs and getting more active in the rescue community, I happened upon vegans who would drop in a line every now and then so that the “animal lovers” would make the connection between dogs and the meat on their plate. Though a lot of the exhausted people there would get defensive, the seed would always get planted in someone’s mind and a few of them did start to change their diet. Somewhere in there, I made that connection as well and realized I wasnt doing enough by fostering death row dogs, raising awareness about the pet over population problem etc.

Now a few years down the line, I am back feeling I am not doing enough. My family including hubbs and chewie eat a plant based diet, we try to use plant based and eco friendly options outside diet, try to make easy plant based meals for the blog, so that every time someone chooses to make something from the blog, it is a step towards less animals being slaughtered. 

But when I look at the volunteers who work tirelessly in animal rescue or sanctuaries or activists working to spread the cause, it feels like there is more that I can do. 
I am planning a fundraiser for some extremely hard working people soon, and also thinking up what more can I do without getting overwhelmed. Ideas? throw them my way.

In recent news, VSPCA’s long hard battle has finally resulted in stopping of slaughter of male calves as sacrifice in their state in India. 
“Weekly, around 50-70 calves are donated and it goes up to 100 to 300 during festive and auspicious occasions. This adds up to nearly 10,000 male calves annually. These calves become the property of the temple, which can either give them for adoption to interested people or auction them to the highest bidder, which they do every Saturday. We found that the contractors herd these calves into trucks and transport them to slaughter houses as there is a good demand for calf meat. Middlemen too are involved in this unholy business.”

The calves now at the temple are crowded up in a small area without enough food and people had started stealing them for slaughter. VSPCA started working tirelessly to find a solution. They currently moved 100s of the weak baby calves to their sanctuary and are coming up with adoption programs to farmers and such. You can follow the updates, pictures at the VSPCA facebook page here or detailed history and article at VSPCA.org here, and make tax-deductible donations via Help Animals India here. Mention “for VSPA calves”. 
Please feel free to share the pictures from their facebook page. 

Slice of the mini bbq chickpea Tortilla pizza.



Steps:

Place wraps/chapatis. Layer the veggies.



Top with Cooked chickpeas tossed in BBQ sauce and sweet peppers or pickled jalapenos.



Add cheese and bake for 12-15 minutes at 425 degrees F.



Serve hot.



Dont want the grains? Put them in a lettuce wrap. Or put the veggies and chickpeas tossed in sauce in a ramekin. Bake and eat. 

Eat me!



Easy BBQ Chickpea individual Pizzas
Allergen Information: Free of dairy, egg, corn, nut, oil. Can be made gluten-free and soy-free.

Ingredients: for 2 7 inch pizzas
2 Chapatis/Tortillas/soft tacos
1 cup cooked/canned Chickpeas or any other beans/peas/lentils/legumes
2-3 Tablespoons BBQ sauce (home-made soy-free bbq sauce here)
Tomatoes Sliced
Red onions Sliced
Sweet mini peppers or red peppers sliced
Non dairy cheese of choice, or drizzle this cashew millet cheese sauce or this mozzarella shreds.
salt and pepper
parsley or cilantro

Method:
Place the tortillas/tacos/flat bread on baking sheet. I used frozen uncooked Chapatis. They get cooked while baking.
Top with sliced tomatoes and onions.
Toss the chickpeas or other beans with barbecue sauce to coat evenly.
Top the veggies with chickpeas. Drizzle more bbq sauce if needed.
Add other veggies of choice like sweet peppers or pickled jalapeno.
Add salt and pepper if you like.
Top with shredded cheese and then dried or fresh parsley or cilantro. I used dried parsley.
Bake at pre-heated 425 degrees F for 12-15 minutes depending on the flat bread used.
Serve hot as is or sliced.

Variations:
Bake the chickpeas and veggies tossed in bbq sauce, in a ramekin for 12 minutes, then serve as is or top on greens with additional bbq sauce, or in lettuce wraps. No grain, no added oil, bbq chickpea veggie bowl.
Make larger wraps with the ingredients. Add greens or slaw. Cut and serve.



This easy weeknight meal is being shared at Rickis wellness weekend, Allergy Free Wednesdays. 

The Plant platehere! How easy is it to fill the everyday meal plate:)

The plant plate is from JL fields and Ginny Messina’s upcoming book Vegan For Her. Vegan for Her: The Woman’s Guide to Being Healthy and Fit on a Plant-Based Diet is a guide to meeting the unique needs of vegan women, with recipes and practical information for optimal health at every stage of a woman’s life. 
Feel free to share the infographic. I cant wait to see what they bring to the vegan table:)