Noelle Berllaque’s sweet and sour chickpeas recipe

Noelle Berllaque has shared her new Asian inspired chickpea recipe, which is perfect for vegans and can be paired with rice or noodles.
Chickpeas are also a great source of plant-based protein and in today’s Weekend Kitchen feature Noelle will be showing how to make these legumes fun and tasty to eat.

She offers this as a “healthy alternative” to takeaways, with chickpeas being a rich source of vitamins and fiber.
Noelle is also known online as ‘the wandering avocado’, has been posting her recipes on Instagram for three years, where she shares her delicious, colourful and healthy dishes that are inspired different cultures and food from places she has visited during her travels.
Her inspiration for cooking comes from a love of food and her mother has also inspired her to start cooking with traditional homemade dishes.
For Noelle, some of her best memories definitely started in the kitchen, especially when she had family and friends over for a dinner party or any other special occasion.

To find more of Noelle’s tasty recipes follow her on instagram: @thewandering.avocado

Sweet and Sour Chickpeas

These Asian inspired sweet and sour chickpeas are vegan and also make the perfect quick and easy dish to prepare during busy weeknights and it only requires a handful of condiments to create this delicious sticky sauce!

Even though we all enjoy a good takeaway once in a while, it’s also a lot healthier to re-create your own at home especially if you already have the ingredients at hand.

Chickpeas are like the underdog of the pulse family and they are so versatile too! This recipe is packed full of flavour and serves as a healthy, plant based dish which can be meal prepped and lasts for 2-3 days if stored in sealed airtight containers. (I prefer using glass containers over plastic any day for my work lunches, since they are safer and heat up quicker in the microwave!)

It is incredible how much flavour you can achieve with such simple ingredients. I highly recommend this recipe as it is one of my favourite Summer meals!’

Ingredients
1 jar of chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1 onion, diced
1 green pepper, diced
1 aubergine, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 inch fresh ginger, minced
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp wholegrain mustard
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp ketchup
1 tsp dried chilli flakes
Sprinkle of sesame seeds for garnish

Instructions
1. Into a bowl add soy sauce, maple syrup, dried chilli flakes, ketchup and mustard and whisk together and set aside.
2. Bring a wok pan/frying pan up to medium heat.
3. Add a splash of sesame oil, diced onion, green pepper and aubergine to the pan and sauté until caramelised.
4. Add in minced garlic and ginger and sauté till fragrant.
5. Add in chickpeas and stir to combine all the ingredients, including the sauce you whisked together.
6. Stir and allow to simmer on low until sauce thickens, about 3-5 minutes.
7. Remove from the heat, sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve as desired. You can pair it with a side such as boiled rice or even noodles which I have done so here. Enjoy!