These spiced chickpea bowls are healthy and delicious! A perfect 30-minute meal for busy weeknights and great for leftovers.
Spiced Chickpea and Couscous Bowls
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Made this for dinner tonight and it was the perfect meatless meal. Super easy and tasty – I’ll be adding this to the weeknight rotation. Thanks for the great recipe!
Rachel
Chickpea Bowls FTW!
I’m super happy to be bringing this recipe / mashup / bowl situation to you today, guys.
Here’s what we have going on in this chickpea glow bowl:
Spiced chickpeas simmered in sauce fire-roasted tomatoes. Couscous, cooked and fluffed to perfection. Cucumber salad aka cucumbers, some lemon juice, olive oil, and herbs to the max. Plain yogurt or hummus for a side-sauce bonus, and toasted pita wedges.
And just in case you need some ideas, here are the situations that a Spiced Chickpea Bowl could be considered useful in a normal person’s life:
- You have been eating out a lot this week. (Hi, yes.)
- You are returning home from a trip or adventure where you ate really well, and by really well, I don’t mean really “healthy.” (Me again.)
- You like to eat super nourishing food that a) gives you lots of nutrition and b) doesn’t taste like broken hearts and shattered dreams. (Oooh, yes, over here!)
This is currently acting as my colder-weather go-to for a super nutritious, plant-based meal that is basically the same experience as me eating my favorite comfort food. Okay, fine, pizza might still stand in a category all its own, but other than that, I’d say this detox bowl can compete with the best of them.
Watch How To Make These Chickpea Bowls
Ingredients You’ll Need
For the Chickpeas
- Onion and garlic – aromatics bring a lot of depth and flavor.
- Spices – clear your sprice rack! Packed with spices like chili powder, cumin, turmeric, garam masala, cinnamon, and cayenne.
- Chickpeas – the base of this recipe, and also what brings the heft. Fiber and protein are here!
- Fire-roasted diced tomatoes – this is what makes it all saucy and delicious. If you can’t find fire-roasted, just regular diced tomatoes will do the trick.
For the Extras
- Grains – I love fluffy couscous in this, but you could use another grain like quinoa for some extra protein, or rice.
- Cucumbers – a little cucumber salad is the perfect brightener against the richness of the spiced chickpeas. Cucumbers, herbs, olive oil, and lemon juice.
- Yogurt – cooling and creamy and such a perfect addition.
- Herbs – more fresh herbs!
- Pita – because balance! I love scooping up the chickpeas with a few wedges of pita bread or naan.
How To Make These Chickpea Bowls
This is a 30-minute dinner! Love that for us!
- Make the Chickpeas: Garlic and onion, spices, tomatoes, and chickpeas – all you do is sauté and simmer it all up in a skillet until it’s beautifully saucy and fragrant.
- Cook the Couscous: I love how quickly couscous can be cooked. Just takes 10 minutes!
- Toss Together Cucumber Salad: Get some diced cucumbers together with olive oil, lemon juice, and herbs.
- Build Your Bowl: Add your couscous and chickpeas, and top with cucumber salad, yogurt, more herbs, and pita wedges!
Variations and Swaps
Make this your own with these swaps and additions!
- Use Lentils Instead of Chickpeas: This works really well with lentils too if that’s your preference! Cook them beforehand and let them finish simmering in the sauce.
- Use Chicken Instead of Chickpeas: If you want to add meat to this, I’d recommend chicken! Just slice it or cube the chicken, cook in the pan with garlic and onion, and then simmer it together with everything else.
- Use Other Sauces: I’ve also had this with hummus and it’s delicious! I could also see the mint sauce in this working well.
- Make It A Wrap/Burrito: Roll it up in lavash bread or naan to make it a handheld.
Source notes: This recipe was previously titled “Detox Moroccan-Spiced Chickpea Glow Bowls” but was updated in August 2021 to better reflect and respect the cultural origins from which this dish came from. While this recipe uses some Moroccan-inspired spices, it is not a traditional Moroccan dish. Just deliciously spiced chickpeas stewed together with tomatoes and piled in a bowl with couscous, fresh herbs and veggies, and yogurt.
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Spiced Chickpea and Couscous Bowls
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 6 1x
Description
Spiced Chickpea Bowls: clean eating meets comfort food! vegetarian / vegan.
Ingredients
Units
Scale
Spiced Chickpeas
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1/2 chopped onion
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon each – chili powder and cumin
- 1 teaspoon each – turmeric and garam masala
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- dash of each – cinnamon and cayenne (to taste)
- two 14-ounce cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- two 14–ounce cans fire-roasted diced tomatoes
Bowls:
- cucumbers
- couscous
- mint, parsley, cilantro
- yogurt or hummus
- olive oil
- lemon juice
- toasted pita wedges
Instructions
- Make the Chickpeas: Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion; saute until soft. Add the garlic, spices, salt, and chickpeas – stir until very fragrant. Add the tomatoes (undrained) and simmer for 20 minutes while you prep the other ingredients.
- Finish: Chop the cucumber, cook the couscous, and mince the herbs. Arrange bowls with desired amounts of all ingredients. Voila!
Notes
These are also very delicious as burritos. I am not joking. Wrap all those fillings up inside a large, warmed flour tortilla and be amazed.
Nutrition information is for 1/6th of the spiced chickpea mixture which is the base of the bowls. Because bowls vary greatly depending on what ingredients you like, you should factor in the amounts of any other ingredients that you add.
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 20 mins
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Moroccan-Inspired
Keywords: chickpea bowl, vegan chickpea bowl recipe, spiced chickpeas
Three More Favorite Chickpea Recipes
Make It A Freezer Meal!
Freeze Together:
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1/4 cup chopped onion
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon each – chili powder and cumin
- 1 teaspoon each – turmeric and garam masala
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- dash of each – cinnamon and cayenne
- two 14-ounce cans chickpeas (drained and rinsed)
- two 14-ounce cans fire roasted diced tomatoes
To Cook:
INSTANT POT: From frozen, 15 minutes on high pressure + quick release.
FINAL STEP: Serve with couscous, cucumber, hummus, yogurt, herbs, and pita bread slices!
View more healthy freezer meals here!
One More Thing!
This recipe is part of our collection of best healthy bowls. Check it out!
Filed Under: All Recipes Bowls Dairy-Free Fall Healthy Legume Lemon Recipes Sugar-Free Tomato Vegan Vegetarian
October 28, 2016
Nice to meet you!
I’m Lindsay and I ♡ FOOD. I used to be a teacher, and now making food and writing about it online is my full-time job. I love talking with people about food, and I'm so glad you're here.
Did you make a recipe? Tag @pinchofyum on Instagram so we can find you!
This recipe is absolutely incredible. Making the chickpeas is so easy and quick and yet so flavorful and delicious!! I have it with rice and have made it multiple times! It’s so good!!! Thank you!!!
This was so delicious! It was an easy meal to make with ingredients we had on hand. Will definitely be making it again!
So good! 😊 I used up a pot of tzatziki instead of yoghurt and wasn’t sure if it would work but it did. The chickpeas are 👌
Okay WOW. I found this recipe from the freezer recipe post and decided to make it because I only needed to buy two ingredients—chickpeas and tomatoes; everything else I had. Both my boyfriend and I rated this an 11/10!! The amount of flavor for effort is honestly shocking. I kept saying wow the entire time I was eating. I ended up making Pinch of Yum’s tzatziki sauce to go on top and it was a game changer. Do NOT skip this recipe!!
For the Freezer/IP version. Do you thaw first before putting in the IP? Or just put it all in frozen? 15 minutes for thawed seems like a long time to me….
It goes in frozen!
Quite tasty! This comes together very quickly and has great flavor. My husband is a vegetarian so it’s always nice when I can find a recipe without having to swap any ingredients for him. I loved the sprinkle of the fresh herbs on top to tie it all together. Cozy, healthy, easy…best of all worlds!
Hi! I froze this recipe and only realized at the end that it requires an instant pot. How should I cook this if I don’t have one? Stovetop or slow cooker ? Thank you!
Either will work! For stovetop, just thaw and simmer on the stove for about 30-45 minutes and you should be good!
Hi Lindsey!!
First of all, thanks a lot for sharing your amazing recipes! I’m from Spain and came across your blog a year ago… Honestly, your talent is exceptional… the flavors you present are out of this world. In a word, you are a STAR!! I’m gonna cook this dish tonight, but I have a question: the chili powder you use in your recipes is chili powder with a blend of other spices or just plain chili powder?
Thanks very much again, Lindsey!!
Just plain chili powder!
My family loved the chickpea bowls! They each had seconds! Super easy, quick, and CHEAP!
What are the key principles or values that Pinch of Yum follows when developing and sharing recipes with its community?
This was just ok to me. Wanted to like it more, but wasn’t tempted to eat the leftovers.
We’ve made this a bunch of times and it’s a favorite for sure. Following the recipe exactly makes a great dish. Do that and be super happy.
After making this a ton of times we have settled upon a couple of modifications. Add tomato paste and a bit of sugar to smooth the tomato/cumin/chili powder edges. We also add a cup or more of water and cook the dish covered, which makes an incredible sauce–just preference on that though.
Surprisingly spicy and so so good! Used hot chili powder, chives, cilantro, and quinoa; added nonfat plain Greek yogurt; and omitted pita. This will go in our regular rotation!
Meant to rate this five stars!
I was gifted a frozen batch of this and it sounds amazing, but I don’t have an instant pot! Will it still work to simply thaw it out and cook it all on the stove together, despite not adding the ingredients in order?
Hi! In the freezer version of this it lists instructions for the instant pot but not for the crockpot. Would that not work with this dish? I have yet to jump on the instapot bandwagon!
Hi, Lauren! This recipe wasn’t tested as a freezer meal in the slow cooker, and we’re not sure it would work super well. The chickpeas might get too mushy.
This recipe was delicious! Full of flavor and easy to make. My entire family (including 3 young kids) all loved it.
Hi, just wondering how many each serve is in grams?
Hi, Kathy! Unfortunately we don’t know the serving size in grams. Sorry!
Delicious! Just made this for dinner tonight & it turned out phenomenal. I must say that the cucumber & the dollop of coconut yogurt really complimented the dish nicely. Thank you for another fabulous vegan dinner! Xoxo.
Definitely heavily spiced, but well offset by the cucumber and fresh herbs (for kids, I would cut back on the quantities of spices a tad). Love how fast and easy this was!
Will be making this again! Delicious !
Since I was just making this for me I cut the recipe in half. It was so quick and easy and very delicious. Funny story the grocery store had mixed up the labels for local cucumber and bitter melon so that was a horrible surprise. I do not recommend eating raw bitter melon (especially when you don’t scoop out the middle). I should have stuck to my instincts when I was looking at the produce. lesson learned. I will make this again.
I made this as a freezer meal
I do not have an instant pot
What are your suggestions for crock pot?
I just made this for dinner and am eating it as I type. Wow!! It is delicious and tastes so fresh and healthy. I subbed the chili powder for Sambal Oelek (chili paste) because I didn’t have any. And it’s fantastic and has the perfect amount of kick. This recipe is amazing! 10/10
So good!
How long if using a slow cooker instead of an instant pot?
We’d suggest 2 hours on high or around 4 hours on low.