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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.
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.
Great idea with chipotle cashew dressing!
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.
yay!
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
Thats so Amazing!!! That firecracker sauce is awesome in many things. Happy Cooking!
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!
Wow! Thank you so much.
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!
🙂 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.