As I make my way back through older recipes, I've realized how much my cooking style (for the site) has changed over the years. While the the recipes from yesteryear are good, I've found myself branching out into new flavors, ideas, and recipes. It's a good thing but don't be fooled, there are still recipes from the archives that I use quite a bit. One of my favorite recipes is from four years ago and it's super simple: smother a potato with chickpeas tossed with buffalo sauce. I still have a weakness for buffalo sauce and this buffalo chickpea salad is an updated version of that older recipe. Many recipes call for cooking the chickpeas in the sauce but I much prefer to fry the chickpeas, then toss them in the sauce. This way, the tangy buffalo sauce mixes with the cool ranch.
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Cooked chickpeas tossed with an easy buffalo sauce and served with homemade ranch- a perfect lunch or light dinner.
Tips & Tricks: make the dressing ahead of time. The homemade ranch will keep for about a week and the flavors will develop more as it sits.
Stock up: get the pantry ingredients you will need: chickpeas, spices, herbs
Nutrition: see the information.
The buffalo chickpeas are easy and make for a great topping/filling. Besides the suggestions below, I will add the buffalo chickpeas to tacos, quesadillas, or as mentioned above, a stuffed potato. Play around with the hot sauce/butter combination to find the right balance for you. I like my sauce with barely any butter but others like it 50/50.
BBQ Sauce: In place of the buffalo sauce, use bbq sauce. A fun alternative that works just as well with the ranch! I like this homemade bbq recipe.
Stuffed Pita: Place all the ingredients from the salad in a pita- a portable lunch!
Vegan: Ditch the butter (or use a vegan butter alternative to cool the sauce down) and use this herby hemp dressing in place of the ranch.
I always have chickpeas on hand for quick meals (like these chickpea burgers). I prep a big batch on the weekend, freeze in 2 cup portions, and pull out/thaw whenever I need them. A few other ways to use up those chickpeas in fun dinners:
Quinoa Falafels
Chickpea Cakes with Shaved Asparagus
Teriyaki Chickpea Loaded Sweet Potato
This recipe looks amazing!!! I am totally sharing your recipe on our blog later today for our readers. They will LOVE this.
My goal with my cooking is to be more adventurous with sauces, I think it's the best way to explore new flavors and combinations. This looks delicious!
This looks really good.
This looks so delicious! Combining my favorite things (buffalo and ranch) with something a little bit more healthy than fried wings! Thanks for sharing I can’t wait to try this 🙂
Thanks for repeating this recipe! I was conducting a personal food experiment ~4 summers ago and saw one of your buffalo chickpea recipes. That summer I decided I was only eating meat if I (or someone) could tell me the farm from which it came.
The buffalo chickpeas made me realize that a lot of the foods I liked were not necessarily the meat, but the way it was flavored (helloooooo Franks!) and it forced a mindset shift.
I remembered the buffalo chickpeas tonight as my CSA greens are overflowing the fridge and chopped in some scapes and scallions into the sauce and tossed it onto the pinto beans I had on hand. Great salad.
Hi, Erin,
I made this tonight, and it was absolutely fantastic! Thanks so much for the delicious recipe. Mmmm! Nicki