Vegan Chickpea Nuggets! Excuse us while we giddily enjoy these comfort food plant-based nuggets.
Irresistibly crispy, tender, and flavorful, these healthy, oil-free Vegan Chickpea Nuggets are little golden treasures of yumminess! Chickpea nuggets are the perfect finger food for little kids and big kids alike. Perfectly crunchy coated baked nuggets are fun to eat, and the whole family will be fighting over the last nugget.
Whole Food Plant Based, Vegan, plant based, oil free, refined sugar free, no highly processed ingredients and gluten free.
Hi there, Ameera here!
These Vegan Chickpea Nuggets are easy to make and the perfect finger food for the little ones, even big kids love them. They are tasty and filling. Dip them in your favorite sauce for the ultimate nugget experience.
Even Michael was raving about how great they tasted. We all gobbled them down like no tomorrow. If you got a nugget lover in your family, this tasty chickpea version is sure to put a smile on their face.
Tips for Success:
- Aquafaba: Aquafaba is the liquid in a can of chickpeas. It can be used for a number of things. In this recipe, we are using it to act like a glue to attach the crumb coating to the nugget. You can also do a quick dunk in water if you forget to save the aquafaba.
- Nugget Formation: To create a great nugget, really pack the chickpea mixture tightly in your hand to form a firm, smooth cohesive ball, then press down while it is still in your hands and form a flattened disk. Take the time to really smooth out the sides. If you wish, you can create a egg-shaped nugget as typically found in McNuggets. Smoothing the sides, helps prevent the nugget from cracking while it is baking. They may crack a tiny bit, but you want to make sure that shore up the edges before it goes in the oven.
- Thickness of the nugget: The thickness of this nugget is another area within your control. We made multiple kitchen tests and preferred a ¾ inch thick nugget.
- Crumb Coating: Simply place the crumb coating in a small bowl. Then take each nugget, dip it into the aquafaba with one hand, shake off the excess aquafaba, and then place the nugget in the crumb coating, and then flip over with the other hand. Coat the nugget with a thin crumb coat. Repeat with all the other nuggets. Don’t press too hard to get the crumb coating to stay, the aquafaba will make it stick. It is best to keep one hand for dipping and one hand for crumb coating. Make sure you shake off the nugget after dipping in the aquafaba to remove excess wetness. You want the crumb coating to stay pretty dry. If it gets too wet, then it makes it difficult to ensure the nuggets are coated nicely. If you see that is happening. Stop and wash and dry your hands and start again.
- Freezer Friendly: To freeze them, simply make them, cool completely to room temperature, line them up individually creating a log-row of 4 to 6 nuggets, and wrap them in plastic wrap, then place the log of wrapped nuggets into a freezer bag. You can pull one log of nuggets at a time, microwave, and devour! They taste as good as the day you made them.
- Cayenne Pepper: The cayenne pepper adds just a tiny kick of flavor.
Leftovers and Freezing:
Leftovers will generally keep for 4-5 days in the refrigerator. Store in a covered container. Reheating can be done in the oven or in the microwave.
These chickpea nuggets freeze well.
Pantry Products Used:
- Vegetable Stock: We use Pacific Organic Low Sodium Vegetable Stock. We love this brand because it is Whole Food Plant Based compliant, as it does not contain MSG, has no oil, and does not contain any highly-processed ingredients.
- Tamari: We used San J Tamari Soy Sauce, Gluten Free, Reduced Sodium. You can substitute the tamari with reduced sodium soy sauce, Braggs Liquid Aminos, or Braggs Coconut Liquid Aminos.
- Panko Crumbs: We used Ian’s Gluten Free Panko crumbs for this recipe. Ian’s is oil-free but does contain a small amount of sugar in it. Ian’s is generally accepted by the Whole Food Plant Based Community. If you do not need to be gluten free, feel free to use any panko bread crumbs of your choosing.
- Rolled Oats: Use whole grain rolled oats, not instant oats. We used Bob’s Red Mill Rolled Oats (Whole Grain).
Try these tasty nuggets with our delicious sauces
- Copy-Cat Chick-fil-A Sauce
- Sweet and Smoky BBQ Sauce (Sweet Baby Ray’s Healthy Copy-Cat)
- Maple Mustard Dipping Sauce
- Vegan Buffalo Sauce
- Vegan Chipotle Ranch
- Vegan Tangy White Cheese Sauce
- Vegan Blue Cheese
- Vegan Yum Yum Sauce
- No Oil Vegan Ranch
Kitchen Products Used:
- Food Processor. We like this 14-Cup Food Processor
- Baking Sheet. We like this Wilton 21in x 15in baking sheet
- Parchment Paper
We certainly hope you give this deliciousness a try.
If you try these tasty nuggets, we would love to know if you enjoy it as much as we do! Please leave us a review! Post a picture on Facebook or Instagram and tag us! We would love to hear from you.
PrintVegan Chickpea Nuggets
- Prep Time: 20 Minutes
- Cook Time: 22-25 Minutes
- Total Time: 42 Minutes (+Rest Time)
- Yield: 16 Nuggets 1x
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegan
Description
Irresistibly crispy, tender, and flavorful, these healthy, oil-free Vegan Chickpea Nuggets are little golden treasures of yumminess!
Ingredients
Base Ingredients:
- ½ cup rolled oats *
- ½ cup Panko crumbs (or bread crumbs) *
- 1 – [ 15 oz. can ] chickpeas, drained (into a bowl) and rinsed *
- 2 Tablespoons flax meal
- 1 Tablespoon reduced-sodium tamari *
- 1 Tablespoon tahini
- 3 Tablespoons low-sodium vegetable broth *
- 1 Tablespoon nutritional yeast
Spice/Herb Ingredients:
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 2 Tablespoons dried minced onion flakes
- ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper *
- ¼ to 1 teaspoon sea salt (+/-) *
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
Crumb Topping Ingredients:
- 2 Tablespoons + 1 teaspoon Panko crumbs (or bread crumbs) *
- 1 Tablespoon cornmeal
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon sweet paprika
- Large pinch smoked paprika
- Large pinch cayenne pepper
- 1 teaspoon nutritional yeast
- Pinch to 1/8 teaspoon sea salt (+/-) *
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 F.
- Drain the can of chickpeas into a bowl to retain the aquafaba to use later in Step 9.
- Place all the Spice/Herb Ingredients into a small bowl, mix well, set aside.
- Place the Crumb Topping Ingredients into a small bowl, mix well, set aside.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, set aside.
- Place the oats into a food processor and process just until slightly broken up, about 10 seconds, do not pulverized them.
- Then add all the remaining Base Ingredients and the Spice/Herb Mix to the food processor (with the oats), pulse off and on until the all the ingredients are mixed well. Pick up some of the mix and squeeze it together, it should stick together easily. If not, add a teaspoon of veggie broth at a time until the mixture comes together.
- Pick up a golf-sized ball of the mixture and form a smooth, tight ball, then while still in your hands, flatten the ball into about a ¾ inch thick disk and place on the parchment-lined baking sheet. Continue until all the nuggets are made. (See notes on nugget formation).
- Then take each nugget, dip it into the aquafaba, then place the nugget into the crumb mixture, coat it on all sides with the crumb mixture then place back onto the parchment paper. Continue until all nuggets are dipped and coated.
- Place in a preheated 375 F oven (center rack) and bake for 15 minutes, then flip, and bake for another 10 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and allow to sit for 2 minutes to set up before serving with your favorite dipping sauce.
Notes
*Please reference the blog post for Tips for Success, Pantry Items Used, Storage and Freezing, and Kitchen Products Used.
*Sea Salt: Please adjust the sea salt based upon your family’s sea salt preferences and/or based upon dietary needs.
*Serving: Makes 16 nuggets
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Made these yesterday, so that we could reheat them for lunch today. Paired with a salad. I really enjoyed the flavours and the crunch. (Even with reheating the crunch was great.)
The rest will get frozen for another day. Yum!
Great idea to use the aquafaba.
Hi there Sandra 🙂
Yaaaayyy! We are so thrilled that you enjoyed this recipe. We love to freeze them too because they reheat so well. Thank you so much for sharing your awesome review with us. We appreciate you taking the time to write.
-Ameera and Robin 🙂
Looks delicious! Step 8 says “Then take each nugget, dip it into the aquafaba,” but aquafaba isn’t on the ingredient list, nor is it mentioned elsewhere in the recipe.
Hi there Maria 🙂
Thank you so much for reaching out to us. It was somewhat implied; however, we updated the recipe steps to make it more clear. We appreciate the feedback to improve the recipe instructions
-Ameera and Robin 🙂