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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.
Hi. I am new to using Tofu. I have never purchased it. So the recipe instructions to use 1/2 a block of Tofu – how much is this exactly, in some form of measurement, ie, is it half a cupful?
Regards, Marlene
There is no Tofu in the recipe. generally a block would be 14 oz
Wonderful recipe it is perfect
I forgot the glaze but was just fine anyway.
We ate it room temperature with cranberry ginger chutney
Can’t wait to try your other recipes
Yum
Mary
Richa,
How big a loaf pan did you use as this affects the cooking time?
9 by 5 inch. I used a glass pan. With the regular metal pan, it might get done a few minutes early.
THE best began loaf ever. Went with chickpeas and lentils. Used cranberries and threw in chopped walnuts as cooking veggies. Next time will use panko instead of breadcrumbs. The glaze is awesome (omitted hot sauce). Question, can I freeze after cooking? Especially as I want to make vegan balls. How to reheat? How to adapt for vegan burgers?
Awesome! You can freeze the loaf after cooking. Cool, slice and freeze the slices individually then store together in the freezer. That way you have slices that you can use individually.
For “meat” balls, you might need some additional breadcrumbs. Shape into small balls and pan fry for 4 to 6 minutes, turning every minute to brown on the edges. for burger patties, Shape into patties and cook on a hot skillet for 4 to 6 minutes each side. or bake at 400 deg F for 20 minutes or longer. For both of these, you want to mash some of the mixture well and make well packed sturdy patties. If the patties are too crumbly, add a flax egg to the mix, or if too wet, add in breadcrumbs. You can use the glaze as the sauce with the burgers.
I made this today and it came out quite good. Thanks 🙂
Awesome!
Can I use 2 cans of cannellinis and leave out the chickpeas?????????
Do you have the nutritional values for this recipe? I like to keep track on cronometer..thanks
Hi Joyce,
You can add the recipe to any online counter as myfitnessfal or caloricounter etc. I don’t add nutritional values as it is just me, one person working on the entire blog.
Is the loaf big enough to serve four people for Christmas lunch? I notice the recipe states that it is only one serving. Do I need to adjust the recipe to serve 4 people?
yes it will serve 4 people.
Hi,
I want to make this loaf for Christmas Day. Your recipe says that it serves 1. Is that correct? I want to make a loaf that is big enough to serve four people. Can you let me know if the recipe is big enough or do I need to adjust it?
it makes 1 8.5 by 4.5 loaf. Serves 4 easily. I will update that