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
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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 (425.24 g) can chickpeas drained (save the aquafaba for meringue) or 1.5 cups cooked
- ½ tsp (0.5 tsp) oil
- ¼ tsp (0.25 tsp) salt or to taste depends on if chickpeas were salted
- ¼ tsp (0.25 tsp) cayenne
- ¼ tsp (0.25 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
Christie
Fantastic, delicious recipe!!!
Vegan Richa Support
Awesome !
Lisa
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.
Richa
Yay
Sylvia
I can’t wait to try this! I have tried some of you other recipes and love them. I follow you on instagram.
Vegan Richa Support
let me know how it turns out for you
Keren
Amazingly delicious! The combo of flavors is fantastic!
Ali
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.
Vegan Richa Support
🌶.chilliabilty – my new favourite word! 🌶.🌶.🌶. i”m glad that you’re enjoying my cookbook – Thank you so much for your support 🌶.
Jane
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!
Richa
awesome!
Geri Garrett
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?
Richa
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
Maneesha
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!
Nina
Hi Richa,
This was super delish. My daughter loved it. And asked me to make her more chickpeas. Thanks again!
Richa
Thats awesome! long time.
Richa
Great idea with chipotle cashew dressing!
Jo
First time I made it people were licking their plates.
Second time I tried a Chipotle cashew dressing that was drizzled over everything.
WOW….what a great recipe to work with.
Thank you for all your wonderful creations.
Five stars is not enough.
Richa
Great idea with chipotle cashew dressing!
Marie
This is fantastic!!!!!!!! I made this last night for hubby and I while the kids were gone b/c I thought they might not like- Oh I think they will. Definitely going into my regular rotation of recipes. Great Summer night dinner. I didn’t change anything and just the right amount of heat and sweet. Brought leftovers today for lunch and my mouth is watering thinking about it. Thanks for a great recipe.
Richa
yay!
Vasudha
I made this for my house of 56 people and multiplied all of the ingredients by 10. Usually, salad is the only thing that isn’t finished after dinner, but when I made your recipe people helped themselves to seconds and there wasn’t a single piece of baby spinach remaining in the bowl! I love how the heat is offset by the sugar. This is a masterpiece.
On a side note, I have been cooking for the past 4 months using your recipes to feed my housemates. Everyone loves them and no one complains that dinner is vegan since it’s so damn tasty!
I have never tried my hand at cooking before this year but your recipes have inspired me. <3
Richa
Thats so Amazing!!! That firecracker sauce is awesome in many things. Happy Cooking!
Christie
This is, hands down, no competition, the best salad I’ve made or even had at a restaurant! Seriously – It could win awards. I’ve been cooking since the age of 13, and am a pretty dang good cook, but you are a flavor artiste 👩🎨 Your recipes are amazing – Thank you so much for sharing them!
Vegan Richa Support
Wow! Thank you so much.
Shannon
Wow – that is very, very firecracker-y!
A little too hot for my blood, but I loved the peanut sauce (the one with the coconut milk) as a dressing for the salad. I could always make the chickpeas again with less heat, and this would be perfect.
Thanks for sharing. Your site is becoming my go-to!
Richa
🙂 It has to live up to its name. Yes, definitely adjust the heat, no cayenne and less hot sauce. you can thin it out by adding more water, or just wash off some of the sauce off the chickpeas to make it edible.
Ana @ Ana's Rocket Ship
Wow – this looks so delicious!!!!
Erika
This bowl is amazing! I make it at least once a week!! Love the flavors and textures.
Amanda (AmethystJean)
This is amazing. I made it for a pot luck last week. I used paprika instead of cayenne because that’s what I had at the moment and it rounded out the flavour nicely. I also added beets that were hanging around my fridge. Not only were they begging to be used, I thought they would compliment the richness of the peanut sauce and the spiciness of the chickpeas. It was perfect. I will make the chickpeas a day ahead next time because the flavour was even better the next day. Thanks for another great recipe.
Richa
Awesome!!
Sam ~ it doesn't taste like chicken
Peanut butter sauce is ALWAYS a good idea.
Scratch that, peanut butter anything is ALWAYS a good idea!!
Neeta
I am allergic to peanuts but really want to make this…thoughts, Richa? 🙂
Richa
use almond butter 🙂 i usually make the sauce with almond butter.
Vicky Esperanza
I think I will try to sub the PB with powder cause I am cutting all the oil out.
Meg @ Noming thru Life
Uh YUM! I love firecracker sauce. But then to make it into a salad… BRILLIANT! Bravo Richa 🙂
Sarah | Well and Full
You had me at “firecracker chickpeas” 😉
Caitlin
looks incredible, lady. i bet the flavor is out of this world.
Ceara @ Ceara's Kitchen
This looks like the perfect salad and packed with SO much flavor! Love it!
Farha - faskitchen
frankly, I have never heard of the chana in peanut sauce.. but sounds really interesting and delicious, can’t wait to try
Cassie Tran
OMG! This sounds amazing! Chickpeas and peanut sauce sound like the best combo!
Danielle
Oh my god looks so good. Cant wait to try this… anything with peanut butter, I’m there!
Lynsi
Holy crap this is a dinner this week. Thanks for doing some planning for me, Richa!