Satiating chickpea tacos make for a flavorful, healthy, and easy lunch or dinner. Finish with your favorite toppings like avocado, lettuce, and tomato. A terrific weeknight meal! Vegan & gluten-free.
When it comes to tacos, I’m an all-around fan.
I love black bean tacos, vegan fish tacos, jackfruit carnitas tacos, raw tacos, sweet potato tacos, seitan chorizo puffy tacos…
But let’s not forget about the humble chickpea!
I’ve been making this dish for over a decade now, and it’s still a favorite!
With a blend of ancho chili powder, paprika, cumin, and a squeeze of lime juice, these tacos have warming, spicy flavors. And with all of those fresh ingredients on top, it’s a crowd pleaser in the summer as well as cold winter months.
Chickpeas have a muted flavor that really picks up spices. And their hearty bite makes for a filling meal.
This is a budget-friendly recipe, because it uses a lot of pantry & kitchen staples like garbanzo beans, onions, garlic, spices, tortillas, tomatoes, and lettuce. That makes it a good meal for serving a crowd, because it’s not going to break the bank.
You should also plan on making extra for quick meals throughout the week.
Should I use canned or homemade beans?
Either canned or homemade garbanzos will work for this recipe. I tend to use canned beans, because they’re easy and convenient. However, if you’d rather use homemade beans, that works too.
For this recipe you’ll either need one 15-ounce can of beans that’s been drained and rinsed or 1 ½ cups of cooked chickpeas.
How to make chickpea tacos
Sauté onions & garlic in a skillet with oil.
Add drained chickpeas, lime juice, water, ancho chili powder, paprika, cumin, and salt.
Sauté for 10 minutes, until heated through with the water and spices absorbed.
Put chickpea mixture into warmed taco shells or tortillas. Top with lettuce, onions, tomatoes, guacamole or avocado, cilantro, jalapeño peppers, and/or hot sauce.
Some shredded non-dairy cheese would not go amiss here too, if you like!
What to serve with them
With beans, vegetables, and whole grains (by way of a corn shell or whole wheat tortilla), these tacos are a complete meal on their own! They’re also great with any of the following:
- Pineapple salsa
- Peach & black bean salsa
- Southwest salad with grilled corn
- Spanish rice
How to re-purpose leftovers
I like to make a double batch whenever I make chickpea tacos. It’s so convenient for leftovers, fast lunches, or re-purposing into other dishes. (If a recipe below calls for black beans, use this chickpea mixture instead!)
Use leftovers in:
- Taco pizza with lettuce, onions, tomatoes, and crushed chips on top
- Double decker tacos with refried beans smeared onto an outer soft shell
- Taco salad with a crispy baked tortilla bowl
- Vegan nacho bar
- Walking tacos with corn chips
- Burrito bowl with brown rice and guacamole
Chickpea tacos
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon organic canola oil or olive oil
- ½ medium yellow onion chopped in even medium pieces
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 ½ cups chickpeas (1 15 ounce can), drained and rinsed
- Juice of ½ lime about 1 Tablespoon or 1 Tablespoon of water
- ¼ cup water plus additional if needed
- 1 teaspoon ancho chili powder
- ½ teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- salt to taste
- 6 taco shells or tortillas
- 1 cup green leaf lettuce roughly chopped
- ½ cup chopped tomatoes
- 1 batch guacamole or sliced avocado
- Optional toppings: cilantro, jalapeño peppers, hot sauce
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 365 degrees.
- In a skillet, heat oil to a medium heat. Set a Tablespoon of the onions aside to use as a topping and mince them. Add the remaining onions and garlic to the skillet. Sauté for 5 minutes, until they are fragrant and translucent.
- Add chickpeas, lime juice, water, ancho chili powder, paprika, cumin, and a pinch of salt to skillet. Saute for 10 minutes until heated through. If the chickpeas become dry and the spices start sticking to the pan, lower heat and add a tablespoon or two of water and combine to deglaze the pan. Smash some of the chickpeas with a fork for texture, and so that they don't roll out of the tacos. Taste for salt and add more if necessary. Remove from heat.
- Put the shells or tortillas on a baking sheet and heat in the oven for 3-5 minutes until warm.
- Remove the shells or tortillas from the oven. Fill each shell or tortilla with the chickpea mixture, some of the lettuce, onions, tomatoes, guacamole or avocado, and any optional toppings like cilantro, jalapeño peppers, or hot sauce.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Content and photos updated June 2020. Originally posted February 2015.
Sophia @veggiesdontbite
We LOVE chickpea tacos…well, we love all tacos really! And love the crispy shells that you use too. My boys devour them and love practicing eating tacos “like big boys”. And the Trader’s hot sauce you have in your pic is one of my absolute faves!!! I put it on everything! Yum!
Cadry
Awesome! Yes, isn’t that hot sauce the best? I know people go crazy for Sriracha (and I like it too), but I’ve always been much more obsessed with that Trader Joe’s hot sauce.
Ana
Trader Joes siracha is sooooo good. Its VERY garlicky and makes an amazing lazy marinade for baked tofu.
Cadry
Oh, yes, I like it too! I have that one in the refrigerator now. I haven’t used it with baked tofu. That sounds delicious! Do you mix it with anything else?
Becky Striepe
These look amazing, Cadry!
Cadry
Thanks, Becky! <3
cookeasyvegan
The tacos look delicious, of course, but I just want to comment on the photos! They are so beautiful; the colors of the food and accessories are perfectly coordinated and the overall effect is incredibly appealing. (You’ve reminded me that I still have a load of old posts that need photo updating from when I accidentally deleted all the photos from the entire blog.)
Cadry
That’s so nice, Andrea! Thank you! It’s an ongoing goal of mine to improve my photography, and so I appreciate hearing that it’s working!
I noticed that note on your blog the other day about updating the deleted photos and wondered how that lengthy process was going. Good luck!
johanna @ Green Gourmet Giraffe
sounds great – and I do love your taco holders – we have tacos from time to time but I don’t have it down pat like you seem to
Cadry
Thanks, Johanna! The taco holders are convenient. Since they’re metal, they can go right in the oven, and that way the filling isn’t falling out while I’m eating the other tacos. Since we have tacos at least weekly, those little things help.
Julie
Thank you, this is exactly what I needed. And I even have ancho chile powder
Cadry
Excellent! I hope you enjoy them, Julie!
Vic (The Maine Vegan)
These look awesome. Such a cool taco holder too. Mine always fall all over the plate and make a mess! 😛
Cadry
Thanks, Vic! I bought the taco holders for David as a Christmas gift a year ago, and they’ve come in handy!
lysette
Cool! Looking forward to the re-vamped site and re-visits of older posts 🙂
Cadry
Thanks, Lysette! I’m so excited about it. It’s something that I’ve wanted to do for the longest time. I’m really happy with what the designer has done so far, and I think it’s going to look great.
Shell
These look so yummy! As you know, I love chickpeas. I’ve never tried them like this before. I look forward to trying this recipe soon!
Cadry
Awesome, Shell! I think these tacos would be right up your alley, especially since you’re such a big chickpea fan.
Bianca
Mmmm chickpea tacos!! I’ve been craving tacos with hard shells lately! Also, I can’t wait to see the redesign. I desperately need to do that before VVC!
Cadry
I’m so excited about the redesign. It’s something that I’ve wanted to do for the longest time. The designer I chose also did Cobi’s design at Veggietorials, and I love the look of it. Plus, since my strengths are not in web support and design, I’m glad to hand the controls to someone else!
rika@vm
Yummy! Chickpea tacos – I’ve never tried chickpea-based taco filling before, but the ancho chili powder sounds amazing! Can’t wait to see the redesign!
Cadry
Thank you! I’m really excited too. I’ve been wanting to have a redesign for a long time now, and I love the direction that the designer is taking. I can’t wait to reveal it!
Ashley
It’s hard to beat something as tasty and quick to prepare as chickpea tacos–these look great! Good luck with the “spring cleaning;” I’m excited to see the changes in store.
Cadry
It’s true. Chickpea tacos are such a fun weeknight dinner option, and they always sound good. I’m so looking forward to revealing the new look! Hopefully it won’t be too long now!
Bianca Phillips
Yum!!! These look super-easy. I tend to get into black bean/refried bean ruts with tacos, but chickpea tacos are awesome. I just forget about them! 🙂 Thanks for the reminder.
Cadry
You bet! Black/refried beans are always welcome too, but it’s nice to have a delicious change of pace every now and again.