The Crafting Foodie

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Baked Chickpeas with Tahini Sauce

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These Baked Chickpeas with Tahini Sauce are flavorful, hearty, and healthy making for the perfect meal. Plus, with a few simple condiments, these deep, earthy baked chickpeas are paired perfectly with bright, creamy, tart, crunchy elements creating a perfectly balanced dish.

Baked Chickpeas with Tahini SauceThe Crafting Foodie

I love chickpeas. I eat them pretty every imaginable way – roasted, boiled, pureed, stewed, raw, and baked. I put them in salad, stews, purees, and they can be the star of the dish (like in this Chickpea Salad with Sauteed Onions and Garlic) or a supporting player. For these Baked Chickpeas with Tahini Sauce, the chickpeas are definitely the main attraction.

Baked Chickpeas_The Crafting Foodie

The recipe for these Baked Chickpeas with Tahini Sauce is from one of my all-time favorite blogs – Smitten Kitchen. She calls the recipe Baked Chickpeas with Pita Chips. The reason I called my version of the recipe Baked Chickpeas with Tahini Sauce is because it’s the tahini sauce that brings a bright, fresh balance to these warm, hearty chickpeas. Without it, these baked chickpeas would be good. With the tahini it’s pretty darn amazing.

The chickpeas couldn’t be easier to make. They start with dried chickpeas, and while I love canned chickpeas, in this recipe, using dried chickpeas allows the flavors to penetrate the chickpeas. When I was talking to friends about my obsession with these Baked Chickpeas with Tahini Sauce, they both told me that they’d never cooked with dried chickpeas. I told them that it’s so easy. All you have to do is soak the dried chickpeas overnight, then proceed with the recipe.

Baked Chickpeas with Tahini and SaladThe Crafting Foodie

While the chickpeas are the star of the dish, they wouldn’t shine without the bright, lemony, creamy tahini sauce and the crisp, fresh vegetable salad with mint. Before you start telling yourself that there are too many components and you start thinking about what you can leave out – STOP!!! Every single component adds to the perfect balance of flavors and textures in these Baked Chickpeas with Tahini Sauce. Please believe me, and make all of it. I promise you won’t regret one last thing about it! Just ask my 7 year-old. She ate all the components stuffed in a pita 🙂

Baked Chickpeas with TahiniThe Crafting Foodie

Baked Chickpeas with Tahini Sauce
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 4 to 5 servings
These Baked Chickpeas with Tahini Sauce are flavorful, hearty, and healthy making for the perfect meal. Plus, with a few simple condiments, these deep, earthy baked chickpeas are paired perfectly with bright, creamy, tart, crunchy elements creating a perfectly balanced dish.
Ingredients
  • For the Chickpeas:
  • 1 pound dried chickpeas
  • 4 tbs olive oil
  • 2 medium onions halved, and sliced
  • 3 cloves of garlic, crushed
  • 2 tsp ground cumin
  • 2 tsp ground coriander
  • 1 tsp sumac
  • 1/2 tsp ground red pepper or harissa
  • the zest of one lemon
  • 2 tsp kosher salt (or more if you are using low-sodium broth)
  • 4 cups vegetable broth
  • For the Tahini Sauce
  • 6 tbs tahini
  • 1 clove of garlic, crushed
  • juice of one lemon
  • 1 cup of plain yogurt
  • 4 tbs water
  • salt to taste
  • For the Cucumber Salad
  • 1 large English cucumber or 2 or 3 Persian cucumbers diced
  • 2 medium tomatoes diced
  • lemon juice
  • olive oil
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • chopped fresh mint
  • chopped fresh parsley
  • Additional Condiments:
  • Warmed, toasted pita bread
Instructions
For the Chickpeas:
  1. Cover the dried chickpeas with water in a large bowl. Soak for 24 to 12 hours.
  2. Heat the oven to 375 degrees F.
  3. In a large stock pot or dutch oven, heat the oil over medium heat.
  4. Add the onions and saute until soft.
  5. Add the garlic and spices. Cook for about 3 minutes.
  6. Add the lemon zest and cook for an additional minute.
  7. Add the soaked and drained chickpeas. Stir to combine.
  8. Add the vegetable broth.
  9. Bring mixture to boil. Boil for one full minute.
  10. Add a lid to the pot, and carefully transfer the pot to the oven.
  11. Bake for about an hour to 75 minutes. The beans are done cooking when they are firm-tender.
  12. Once done, remove from oven, and uncover. Cool a bit before eating. (The chickpeas and pot will be extremely hot!)
  13. While the chickpeas bake, make the sauce and salad.
For the Salad:
  1. Combine the chopped vegetables.
  2. Season with lemon juice, olive oil, and salt and pepper.
  3. Add the fresh chopped mint and parsley.
For the Tahini Sauce:
  1. Mix all of the ingredients together until a smooth sauce forms.
  2. Season with salt and pepper.
To Assemble:
  1. Place the chickpeas on a plate.
  2. Top with salad.
  3. Dollop the tahini sauce over the chickpeas.
  4. Sprinkle with additional chopped mint and parsley.
  5. Eat with pita bread.
Notes
This recipe is only slightly adapted from [url href=”http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2015/03/baked-chickpeas-with-pita-chips-and-yogurt/http://” target=”_blank” title=”Smitten Kitchen’s Baked Chickpeas with Pita Chips”]Smitten Kitchen’s Baked Chickpeas with Pita Chips[/url].

Baked Chickpea Collage PinterestThe Crafting Foodie

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Comments

  3. I love anything that has to do with chick-peas and this dish looks delicious. I love how you are serving it with the cucumber salad. The perfect bit of freshness. I will be making this dish soon.

    Reply

    • Thanks Chrissa! The tahini sauce adds a great tart, creamy dimension to the dish (plus it tastes pretty awesome, too!). I did put the sauce on my eggs and green salad. It was delicious 🙂

      Reply

  6. I love Smitten Kitchen – it’s one of my go to sites for recipes. This one is making my mouth water, but I am sick in bed. Can’t wait to try it when all is well again. Thanks for sharing.

    Reply

    • Thanks, Rachel! My friends who are Middle Eastern say that this is a dish pretty much equivalent to what is culturally known as fatteh. And yup – the textures and flavors make it such a well-balanced dish. It’s so good!

      Reply

  16. I’m doing the happy dance over this dish, Aida! I LOVE Tahini sauce and this combo has got to be incredible. Can’t wait to try it and I see it as something that will go well with happy hour in the summer months on the back deck.
    Hope you’re doing well, friend. It’s been a good winter for running!

    Reply

    • Thanks so much, Robyn!! It is such a delicious meal, and yes, it’s the perfect munchable treat. It has been an amazing winter for running. It’s helped me keep my sanity 🙂 I hope you are doing well!

      xoxo,
      Aida

      Reply

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