Easy Chickpea Stir Fry

This easy chickpea stir fry is basically the ideal dinner:

• seriously easy (it’s kinda in the name)
• full of protein, vegetables, and heaps of flavour
• on the table in 20 minutes

What more could you want?!

I love making stir fry, because it’s such a quick and easy dinner, and it’s also a great way to get tons of portions of veg into the day, without it feeling remotely like a chore. Stir fries make vegetables irresistible!

When you add some chickpeas, a simple stir fry immediately becomes more filling, with more protein (over 20g per serving!), and more flavour too. I added noodles to my chickpea stir fry, but rice would be great too, if you prefer!

❤️ Why You’ll Love This Recipe

• It’s a quick weeknight dinner that can be on the table in just 20 minutes!
• Stir fries are endlessly customisable, as you can use whatever combination of vegetables you like (see below for some ideas). And if you’re in need of a fridge-clearing recipe, this is a great option, as you can use pretty much whatever vegetables you already have on hand.
• A chickpea stir fry is a great healthy dinner idea, as it’s packed with fresh, wholesome ingredients – and chickpeas are a brilliant source of plant-based protein.
• This is a great budget-friendly recipe, as a tin of chickpeas isn’t expensive, and you can use whatever vegetables you can find cheaply.

🥗 Ingredients

Here’s what you’ll need to make this recipe. You’ll also need some cooking oil from your cupboard. See the printable recipe card below for detailed ingredient quantities.

• chickpeas. Tinned chickpeas are super convenient, but you can soak and cook your own dried chickpeas instead if you have the time and energy!
• mixed vegetables. I used baby corn, mange tout, tenderstem broccoli, mushrooms, and yellow pepper. It really doesn’t matter what veg you use, just anything that can be stir fried nicely. You can even use a shop-bought stir fry mix – no shame here.
• fresh noodles – the ones that can be added straight to the wok with no pre-cooking. I used egg noodles, but you can use a vegan noodle (like rice noodles) if you’d like to.
• garlic
• chilli. I used a fairly mild chilli – you can always add more, but if you add something too strong, you might spoil the dish! Take the seeds out if you don’t want it too spicy.
• honey (or agave, for a vegan stir fry)
• soy sauce (I used dark soy sauce)
• cilantro, to garnish. I like to sprinkle a few sesame seeds on top too!

Becca’s Top Tip

If you’d like to, use a shop-bought stir fry mix, which contains a variety of pre-chopped stir fry vegetables. It’s often cheaper than buying the vegetables individually, and saves lots of time too!

🔄 Ingredient Swaps

Feel free to make this recipe your own – it’s really easy to customise.

Here are a few ways you could adapt this recipe:

• Use whatever combination of vegetables you like. Beansprouts, cabbage, sliced Brussels sprouts, red pepper, courgette (zucchini), and red or white onion would all work really nicely, in addition to the vegetables I mentioned above.
• I made a simple stir fry sauce using honey and soy sauce, but you can use whatever type of sauce you like best, e.g. sweet chilli sauce, black bean sauce, etc.
• Swap the chickpeas for crispy tofu or teriyaki tofu, to add a different texture.
• Use rice instead of noodles. A sachet of microwave rice would be ideal for this quick recipe, as it can be added straight to the wok with no pre-boiling.

🔪 Equipment

A wok is ideal for making stir fry, if you have one.

Its wide top and deep sides allow you plenty of room for tossing and stirring the vegetables without causing any splashes or spills.

There are all sorts of woks on the market, but I like to use a large (30cm / 12 inch) wok with a non-stick coating, like these ones on Amazon US / Amazon UK, which both have really impressive reviews.

📋 Instructions

Here’s how to make this recipe – see below for the printable recipe with detailed ingredients and instructions.

Step 1: Begin by stir frying the chickpeas with some chilli and garlic.

Step 2: Add your choice of vegetables and cook for a few minutes until they’re just tender.

Step 3: Add the sauce ingredients and let them bubble for a minute or two.

Step 4: Finally add the noodles, and mix well.

Step 5: Serve hot with some garnish.

Becca’s Top Tip

A few sesame seeds and some cilantro sprinkled on top as garnish looks really pretty, and also bring an extra little pop of fresh flavour to the dish. You could also use some chopped cashew nuts or some sliced spring onions.

💭 Recipe FAQs