Pizza roasted chickpeas
Y’all know… can I get away with saying ‘y’all’? I’m thinking not, though it’s definitely at least 80% of the reason I’d quite like to be an American. I’m obviously still watching far too much Nashville.
Anyway, y’all know how much I dig pizza (I definitely can’t pull off ‘dig’, but we’ll go with it) – so much so that I do just about anything I can to eat it as often as I can, while pretending it’s an entirely different meal (see: pizza baked gnocchi, cauliflower pizza, Indian-style pizza, etc). And, since my nacho roasted chickpeas went down so well allllll that time ago (18 months!!), I thought I’d do a pizza version. Pizza roasted chickpeas!
When I say pizza, of course I really just mean that these roasted chickpeas are flavoured with cheesy tomatoey bits, no bread. So really, this is totally healthier than actual pizza – protein-rich chickpeas rather than nutritionless white bread (and there ends the only time I will ever say anything remotely negative about pizza. Don’t worry, I’m perfectly happy to eat nutritionless white bread 90% of the time).
I’ll warn you, these chickpeas were incredibly difficult to dish up – purely because the cheeky things kept trying to jump into my mouth. I just couldn’t stop them (I’ll admit, I probably could have tried harder).
My favourite thing about this dish is (obviously) the cheese – you get a combination of stringy, melty mozzarella and the crispy bits from around the edge of the pan. Together with the rich sun-dried tomatoes and fresh basil, they give the perfect pizza flavour.
I had these chickpeas on their own for lunch, but serve them alongside a big heap of veg (I’m thinking something green and leafy maybe?) and they’d make a great dinner too. Nutritious and delicious.
Pizza roasted chickpeas
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Print Pin CommentIngredients
- 400 g tin chickpeas 240g when drained, drained
- 1/2 tbsp oil
- 1/2 tsp mixed Italian dried herbs
- Salt
- Black pepper
- 1 tbsp tomato puree
- 3 large chunks sun-dried tomato finely chopped
- 3 tbsp fresh basil chopped
- 30 g shredded mozzarella cheese
- 1 tbsp pine nuts
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 190°C (Gas Mark 5 / 375°F.
- Toss the chickpeas in the oil, Italian herbs and seasoning, and spread out in a single layer on a baking tray. Roast for around 15 minutes, until slightly crispy and golden brown.
- Remove from the oven, and add the tomato puree, chopped sun-dried tomatoes, basil, mozzarella and pine nuts. Mix well, and return to the oven for a further 5 minutes, until the cheese has melted and just started to go crispy around the edges. Serve immediately.
Nutritional information is approximate, and will depend on your exact ingredients. Please calculate your own nutritional values if you require accuracy for health reasons.
I live just south of Nashville (one county away, only a few minutes’ drive!), and I give you full permission to adopt “y’all” as a valid word. I actually think it is one of the most useful words in the English language: Pretty much every other language has some handy word for “you plural group of people”. We just have a single word that could equally be referring to one person or a million. It might sound country, but “y’all”
serves an important purpose!! :D
Haha I totally agree!
I’m not vegetarian but I’m trying to get a meatless Monday every week. I will try this next Monday :)
Thanks a lot for the recipe!
Sometimes is hard to find comfort vegetarian recipe options. Yes, for me pizza is comforting hahahaha
Haha most of my recipes are vegetarian comfort food ;)
I think I just fell in love we a dish =0
we = with (ugh, typos)
May I ask, is tomato puree the same thing as tomato paste? I know I can buy small cans of tomato sauce or tomato paste in American grocery stores, but I don’t recall seeing tomato puree….
Thanks!
Hi Amy, as far as I know they’re the same thing! It looks like this.
Thanks! It’s funny, most of the pictures look slightly less dense than the tomato paste I’m used to, but slightly less thin than just plain sauce. I think I can probably go with either, or a combination of both, and get good results. Looking forward to trying this recipe!
I can’t imagine it will make much difference :)
Hi, Amy, I’ve had the exact same issue in my Scottsdale, Arizona grocery store, and I’ve just resorted to buying sauce, since it comes in a much smaller can and is virtually the same thing. Hope that helps!
Thanks, Nicki!
This looks so good. I have a can of chickpeas that have been sitting in the cupboard for too long and now you’ve given me something to try! Thanks.
This looks amazing, and my wife is trying to go light on the carbs right now so I will definitely suprise her with this later this week.
Thanks for the recipe!
Following up – this is great. My only complaints was that there wasn’t enough! We may add some roasted garlic to it next time, but it was so tasty and we will make definitely make it again!
Yay I’m so glad you liked them Doug :D Double the recipe next time!!
Would you be kind enough to tell me the Italian dried herbs you used? Thank you.
Hi Tammy, I just used a tub of mixed Italian herbs but I think it contains thyme, basil, parsley, etc :)
Mmm, these were delicious, Becca! Thanks for another great recipe! Nicki