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Chickpea Veggie Loaf with spices and a spicy bbq glaze. Chickpea Cannellini bean Vegan Meatloaf for Thanksgiving and the holidays. Easy and delicious. Vegan Recipe. Nut-free, Soy-free, Can be gluten-free
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It seems to be the year of the chickpeas. This loaf is easy and quick prep if you have cooked/canned chickpeas. It is inspired from my Lentil Quinoa Loaf. This is a great loaf for anyone who finds lentils too earthy.
Cook some veggies. Pulse the chickpeas and beans, add spices, shape and bake. You can also shape the mixture into fat balls or patties and bake. Use your favorite glaze or my spicy bbq sauce glaze. Serve with cranberry sauce or gravy, some mashed potatoes, other sides and the menu is done! I used up some leftover slices in tacos with guacamole and sprinkled with chipotle pepper. Pictured below with Spicy Cranberry Sauce and Butternut, Apple, Pecan, Cranberry Salad with Harissa spiced Pecans.
More Thanksgiving Mains Recipes:
- Lentil Quinoa Loaf
- Cauliflower Steaks with mushroom gravy GF
- Lasagna Bechamel with Sweet Potato and Cauliflower layers.
- Cauliflower Alfredo, Spinach, Artichoke Lasagna. can be GF
- Easy Vegan Veggie Lasagna. Can be GF
- Whole Roasted Cauliflower with creamy makhani sauce .
Steps:
Cook the veggies, process the beans and half the veggies. Transfer to a bowl and mix in spices and sauces. Get in there to mix and mash if needed.
Press into loaf pan. Glaze and bake.
Cool for 15 minutes, then remove from the pan. Cool completely before slicing.
Serve with sides of choice and sauces or gravy.
This amazing loaf is also in my second book Vegan Richa’s Everyday Kitchen
Chickpea Veggie Loaf - Vegan Meatloaf Recipe
Ingredients
For the Loaf:
- 1 tsp oil
- 1/2 red onion chopped, 3/4 cup
- 4 cloves of garlic finely chopped
- 1/2 cup finely chopped celery , or use other veggies
- 1/4 cup chopped red bell pepper , or carrots or both
- 2 tbsp dried cranberries, optional
- 15 oz can chickpeas , or 1.5 cups cooked
- 15 oz can cannellini beans, or other white beans or use more chickpeas or cooked lentils
- 2 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
- 2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 2 to 4 tbsp my soy free barbecue sauce
- 1.5 tsp lemon juice
- 1 tbsp chia seed meal , or 1.5 Tbsp flax seed meal
- 1 Tbsp Tahini, optional
- 1/4 to 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1/4 to 1/2 tsp cayenne , or chipotle pepper powder
- 1 tsp dried thyme , or rosemary or 2 tsp fresh
- 1/2 tsp dried sage
- 1/2 to 3/4 tsp salt or to taste
- 1/2 cup or more breadcrumbs or a mix of half oats and half breadcrumbs, (for gf use coarsely ground oats or gluten-free breadccrumbs)
Glaze
- 3 tbsp bbq sauce
- 1 tsp hot sauce
- 1 tbsp maple syrup
- 2 tsp ketchup
- a generous dash of freshly ground black pepper
- 1/4 tsp smoked paprika
Instructions
- Heat a skillet over medium heat. Add oil, onions and garlic and pinch of salt. Cook until translucent. Add celery, peppers, cranberries and cook for 3 minutes, * You can cook the veggies without oil. Cook onions and garlic in a splash of broth or water until translucent, then add other veggies.
- Drain the chickpeas and beans really well. In a food processor, process the chickpeas, beans, cilantro, parsley and half of the cooked veggie mixture. Pulse, process until the mixture is half mashed and half coarsely chunky. You can add a handful of greens in as well at this step. .
- Transfer to a bowl. Mix in the chia seed meal into the bbq sauce + lemon juice in a small bowl and let it sit for a minute. Add spices, tahini, bbq sauce mixture, leftover veggies to the beans bowl. Mix in. Add in the breadcrumbs and mix in. The mixture should be like a veggie burger mixture. If too wet, add more breadcrumbs. If too dry, add a tbsp of aquafaba (chickpea brine). or 1 tsp chia/ flax seed meal mixed in 1 tbsp water. Taste the mixture and adjust salt, spice, seasoning.
- Transfer the mixture to parchment lined loaf pan with parchment sheet hanging out to make it easy to remove the loaf. Even it out(by lightly pressing. too much pressing will make a mashed texture loaf ) If you don't have a pan, use a parchment lined baking sheet and shape into a rectangular log.
- Prepare the glaze by mixing everything and spread over the loaf.
- Cover the loaf with parchment, bake at pre-heated 400 degrees F / 200ºc for 20 minutes. Remove the cover and continue to bake for another 15 to 25 minutes, till toothpick from the center comes out clean. Bake longer for taller loaf or if you want crispier edges.
- Cool for 15 minutes, then remove from the pan. Cool almost completely and slice with a serrated knife.
- Or shape into balls and bake for 15 minutes, then flip and bake for another 10-15 minutes. Serve with cranberry sauce, gravy, mashed potatoes or other sides of choice.
Video
Notes
Add 2 Tbsp nutritional yeast.
Add 1/2 cup chopped mushrooms with the onions.
Add 1/4 cup walnuts, oats or cooked rice with the beans in the processor for more textured loaf. Freeze: Bake the loaf, cool, slice and freeze the individual slices. To reheat, reheat slice on a skillet like a burger patty or bake for 15 mins. Nutritional values based on one serving ( 2 slices)
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Richa, do you think canned black-eyed peas will work instead of chickpeas? I just happen to have a can of those on hand in addition to cannellini beans. Thanks!
it should work. since black eyed peas are softer, be careful while processing, so that the beans all dont become a paste. Keep some texture to the mixture. Adjust spices and herbs if needed in the mixture before shaping into a loaf.
I believe I have found my Thanksgiving Loaf. Thank you, your recipe’s are always fabulous. I would like to give it a deeper, darker flavor as I’m also making your mushroom gravy. Would you recommend me adding finely chopped portobello mushrooms and maybe some ground walnuts? Any suggestions? I want to trick my non-vegan guest by making it look more like a meatloaf. ????
hey sharon, you can use brown lentils instead of some of the cannellini beans, also add some mushrooms with the veggies and cook them slightly, and some vegan beef seasoning. It will look darker bit the texture and flavor will not be like a meatloaf.
I’ve read the recipe through twice and I can’t figure out what to do with the other half of the veggies. Step 2 says to process half the veggies with the beans and herbs, but the other half of the veggies are never mentioned again as far as I can tell.
Are they just mixed in–unprocessed–with the spices and breadcrumbs?
yes, add them in when you add the spices in the bowl. i will update the recipe.
Thank you for the Recipe!Just had it for late lunch and it tastes amazing and was surprisingly easy to make!
yay!!
might definitely give this one a go this year, as other vegetarians will be present, thank you truly for sharing your creative culinary inspiration, this looks great!
Awesome!
Hi Richa,
I have a nightshade intolerance and I’m wondering if I leave out the BBQ sauce inside the loaf will it affect the moisture of it or how it holds together? If so, do you have any suggestions for substitutions?
Thanks!
it does add moisture and stickyness. Add some soy sauce + more lemon + maple syrup for the flavor, and 1 flax/chia egg (1 tbsp chia seed meal + 3 Tbsp water, or 1.5 Tbsp flaxseed meal + 3 tbsp water, let it gel up for 5 minutes before adding)
Can I make this ahead and reheat it for Thanksgiving dinner? Your directions indicate it needs to cool in order to slice it. Can I reheat it at serving time?
Sure. We have been eating it for the last 2 days. 🙂
Any suggestions about omitting (or substituting) BBQ sauce? Want to make this but won’t have time to make BBQ sauce from scratch and don’t know if I’ll find a vegan one easily. Thanks so much!
maybe use ketchup + maple + garlic powder + chile powder of choice for a quick bbq sauce sub.
Thank you so much! I actually found it this morning at a farm stand near me. Looking forward to making this!
Richa, every recipe you create is a winner – without exception! I look forward to making this. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks Sue!
This looks really interesting, and it reminds me of some carrot chickpea patties I usually make. Will have to try this recipe.
yes, you can shape these into patties as well!