Vegan Chickpea Nuggets
Clearly I’m a mother because I’ve now made two different nugget recipes in less than 4 months.
You all love those tofu nuggets as much as I do, which makes me so happy. I know that there will come a time in the very near future where Vander requests nuggets like all of his friends and I want to have an option that I can serve to everyone! Then, hopefully, those kids start to requests these nuggets in their house! Is that how we change the world? One nugget at a time?
I saw this recipe for chickpea nuggets a few weeks ago and instantly wanted to try them. So, I went home to make them and… they were just OK. Pretty bland and didn’t come together the way I wanted.
So, I tweaked that recipe and eventually created these- my version of chickpea nuggets! They look just like regular nuggets and have a similar chick-y taste. To get that, we’re using a liberal amount of poultry seasoning which gives the characteristic sage-rosemary taste that chicken nuggets kinda have.
The beauty of this recipe is that it comes together pretty easily. Throw the chickpeas into the food processor and pulse them until they are almost crumbs. You want to crush the chickpeas first without adding in flour, so you don’t have to mix the chickpeas and flour too much.
I use oat flour because regular flour can make these too gummy. Sometimes gluten does that, when it’s processed too much. The dough can become glue-like and the texture is off. Since most of us don’t have oat flour lying around, we are quickly making a batch in the food processor first. Blend regular oats until you get a flour, which takes about 2-3 minutes.
I know not everyone has a food processor, though I think a blender can be used for this recipe as well. You just might have to stop the blender more often, scrape down, and then continue to process.
You can use regular or panko breadcrumbs for these, but you will need to toast the crumbs first. This gets them nice and golden brown, so the nuggets actually look like nuggets! Because we are baking them, they also need a little fat. Therefore, I liberally spray the baking sheet before putting the nuggets on, then spray/drizzle olive oil over on top. The extra bit of fat makes these nuggets super crispy and meaty. So do it!
I think these taste best with ketchup, though my copy-cat Chick-fil-A sauce is also pretty bomb. BL loves these with BBQ sauce!
I can’t wait to hear what you think! If you try them, let me know in the comments below.
Vegan Chickpea Nuggets
Equipment
Ingredients
- 3/4 cups regular or panko breadcrumbs, can use gluten-free to make these nuggets gluten-free
- 1 cup quick rolled oats, not steel cut
- 15 ounce can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
- olive oil or olive oil spray
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
- Place the panko on a rimmed baking sheet and bake until toasted and golden-brown, about 5 minutes. Toasting the breadcrumbs keeps these nuggets golden brown, so don’t skip this steam. Transfer to a shallow bowl and set aside.
- Place the oats in a food processor fitted with a blade and process into a fine flour. Transfer to a bowl and set aside.
- Drain the chickpeas and reserve the liquid (or aquafaba). Add the drained chickpeas to the base of a food processor along with the salt, garlic powder, onion powder and poultry seasoning. Pulse the mixture together until very crumbly.
- Whisk 1/3 cup of the reserved chickpea liquid until foamy (save the rest!), then add to the food processor with the chickpeas along with 1/2 cup of the fine oat flour. Pulse together, adding a little more flour as needed until the mixture forms a ball (see the photo above for how the mixture should look. Take care not to overprocess too much; once it’s able to be pressed together it’s good.)
- Make the nuggets: remove ~1-2 tablespoons of the mixture and form into a nugget shape. I use this scoop to make the nuggets the same size. If your mixture is wet enough, then you can dip the nuggets directly into the breadcrumbs to coat. If not, then whisk the remaining aquafaba till it foams, then dip the nuggets into the aquafaba, then into the breadcrumbs to coat.
- Place nuggets onto a greased sheet pan (the one you used for the breadcrumbs is great) and continue with the rest of the nuggets. Drizzle with olive oil or lightly spray with an olive oil spray. This helps the nuggets crisp as they cook.
- Bake for ~15 minutes until crispy.