These romesco chickpeas – infused with a huge boost of protein from the silken tofu sauce – are a fantastic simple lunch or dinner recipe filled with fresh, summery flavors. The recipe is ready in under 50 minutes (the majority of which is hands-off when roasting your vegetables!) and a fantastic high protien vegan dinner idea.

This romesco chickpea recipe is another recipe in a string of “saucy bean recipes” that I’ve been loving lately. Others along similar veins include these red pesto butter beans, green pesto cannellini beans, and my viral creamy lemon & garlic butter beans. 

This recipe is delicious served with crusty bread, but I’ve also eaten it with pasta stirred in!

Ingredient Notes

The exact quantities of the ingredients you need for this recipe are included in the recipe card at the bottom of this post. Here, I’ve added a few notes on the ingredients you need, plus a few potential substitutions you could make if you can’t eat/find a certain ingredient.

• Chickpeas: I used ready-to-eat jarred chickpeas for this recipe, which I lightly drained. You could also use tinned chickpeas. If you want to use dried chickpeas, you’ll need to soak and cook them before making this recipe, which will add to the cooking time.
  
• Red peppers: Part of the base of a romesco sauce is red pepper. I opted to use a fresh red pepper which I then roasted for this recipe, but to save time you could use jarred roasted red peppers.
  
• Medium tomatoes: Equally, I love the flavor of roasted tomatoes for this recipe. If you want a super quick version of this recipe though, you could also use jarred sun-dried tomatoes to make this recipe in less than 10 minutes.
  
• Garlic cloves: Adding some garlic to the peppers and tomatoes while roasting gives it a lovely depth of flavor.
  
• Red wine vinegar: This is the traditional acidic ingredient added to a romesco sauce, and an essential addition in my opinion! You could use apple cider vinegar if that’s all you have, though.
  
• Nutritional yeast: Nutritional yeast isn’t essential, but it’s high in B12 and adds a nice subtle nutty-cheesy flavor to this recipe.
  
• Lemon: I love a squeeze of lemon juice in this recipe for a zingy, fresh flavor.
  
• Nuts: A traditional romesco sauce uses almonds, but I used pine nuts for this recipe because, if I’m honest, that’s all I had when testing! Use almonds or even cashew nuts if you prefer.
  
• Silken tofu: Silken tofu isn’t typically used in a romesco sauce, but I love the addition of it in this recipe for two reasons. One, it gives this recipe a huge boost of protein, which is beneficial to any vegans or vegetarians wanting to introduce more protein into their diet. Secondly, the silken tofu has no taste but gives the romesco sauce a wonderfully creamy texture.
  
• Garnish and seasoning: The only seasonings used in this recipe are salt and pepper, as the rest of the ingredients really speak for themselves! Top your romesco chickpeas with fresh parsley and, optionally, a drizzle of plant-based cream or coconut yoghurt.

How To Make This Romesco Chickpeas Recipe

Again, the exact step-by-step instructions and ingredient quantities will be in the recipe card at the bottom of this page. 

Below is an overview of making this recipe, plus some process shots to help you visualize how this recipe should turn out.

Step 1) Roast Your Vegetables

Add your halved and de-seeded peppers to a large baking dish along with your tomatoes and garlic cloves. Drizzle with the olive oil, then roast in a preheated oven for 30 – 40 minutes until the tomatoes are soft and the red pepper skins are beginning to blacken.

Remove from the oven and allow the vegetables to cool before making your sauce (you can skip this if you’re going to use a stick blender!). Make sure you squeeze the garlic out of its skins.

Step 2) Blend The Romesco Sauce

Add the roasted peppers, tomatoes, and garlic to your blender along with the red wine vinegar, pine nuts, lemon juice, salt and pepper, and nutritional yeast. Blend until smooth. 

Then, add the silken tofu and blend again until smooth and creamy. Depending on the size of your blender, you may have to do this in batches.

Step 3) Warm & Add Chickpeas

Tip the sauce into a saucepan over medium heat, and add the lightly drained chickpeas. Stir them through the sauce until hot and serve with a drizzle of cream and chopped parsley.

Add more seasoning according to your preferences.

How To Make Romesco Chickpeas In Under 10 Minutes

If you have literally no time but want this recipe, it is possible! Make these swaps:

• Use jarred roasted red peppers instead of roasting fresh red peppers.
• Use sun-dried tomatoes instead of roasting fresh tomatoes.
• Use minced garlic instead of roasting the garlic.
• Make sure you use tinned or jarred chickpeas!

Simply add all the sauce ingredients straight to your blender, blend, and then heat the sauce in your pan with the chickpeas as instructed. Voila!

What To Serve Your Romesco Chickpeas With

This romesco chickpea recipe is basically a meal in itself, although it is nice to have something (like a crusty slice of bread!) to mop up extra sauce with. You could also pair the chickpeas with past, simply stirring cooked pasta into the recipe.

A few greens and side dishes that would go really well with this recipe are:

• Roasted Green Beans and Carrots
• Roasted Frozen Green Beans Recipe
• Dill Roasted Potatoes with Lemon
• Batata Harra Recipe
• Easy Baguette Garlic Bread

Storing

This recipe is just as delicious the next day, so be sure to make leftovers! Store any leftover romesco chickpeas in an air-tight container for up to 3-4 working days in the refrigerator. Heat in the microwave or on the hob before serving.#

You could also freeze this recipe in an airtight container for up to three months. Defrost in the refrigerator before reheating, and eat any food within 24 hours of defrosting.

FAQs

What can I use instead of chickpeas?

If you don’t want to use chickpeas for this recipe, any other bean variety would also be delicious. Try butter beans or cannellini beans instead. You could also make a romesco pasta dish instead!

What is a romesco sauce?

Romesco is a tomato-based sauce that originated from Catalonia, Spain. Traditionally, its main components are charred tomatoes and roasted red peppers, which are then puréed and thickened with toasted almonds and bread.

Can I use firm tofu?

I think silken tofu is more suitable to sauces for the creamy quality it gives them. However, firm tofu could work if that’s all you have – I haven’t tested it though so can’t say for certain.

Can I make this recipe spicy?

If you want your romesco chickpeas to have a spicy kick, add a teaspoon of red chili flakes to the sauce or sprinkle them over the finished dish.