This one-pan Marry Me Chickpeas recipe puts a vegan twist on the viral comfort food, Marry Me Chicken! Get ready to fall in love with this indulgent 15-minute meal.
For more easy ways to use the canned chickpeas in your cupboard, check out my Chickpea Salad Sandwich, Italian Chickpea Soup, Chickpea Burger, and Biscuit Topped Chickpea Pot Pie recipes!
The viral Marry Me Chicken recipe is no match for my vegan-friendly Marry Me Chickpeas. It’s as creamy, indulgent, and family-friendly as the original, but made without dairy or meat!
What’s better is that this one-pan meal is totally foolproof. Just simmer the protein-packed chickpeas in the dreamy Tuscan sun dried tomato cream sauce for 15 minutes, then enjoy it for family dinners or date nights at home. Don’t forget the hunks of crusty bread for scooping up every luxurious bite!
Why you’ll love this easy plant based recipe
- Rich Tuscan-inspired flavors – Like my Tuscan Vegan Gnocchi, vegan marry me chickpeas feature incredible Italian-inspired flavors that will keep you going back for more.
- Packed with protein – Two cans of chickpeas pack this dish with about 30 grams of plant-based protein!
- An easy one-pan meal – The everyday ingredients in this dish are cooked together in one pan in just 15 minutes.
How to make marry me chickpeas
Find the complete recipe with measurements in the recipe card below.
Warm the olive oil in a large pan over low-medium heat. Once hot, add the garlic and sauté until fragrant. Stir in the sun dried tomatoes, oregano, red pepper flakes, salt, and ground black pepper.
Add the chickpeas, vegetable broth, tomato paste, vegan cream, and spinach to the pan. Simmer until the sauce is warmed through and the spinach is wilted.
Garnish the Tuscan chickpeas with chopped fresh basil and vegan parmesan. Scoop up every bite with crusty bread or serve it over rice, pasta, or baked sweet potatoes. Enjoy!
Frequently asked questions
Marry Me Chicken is a dish that combines cooked chicken with a sun dried tomato and garlic cream sauce. The original recipe is made with heavy cream and chicken breasts, but in vegan marry me chicken recipes, they’re swapped for vegan cream and canned chickpeas.
It’s simple: the silky smooth cashew cream sauce, Italian flavors, and hearty chickpeas in every bite are so good that you’re bound to get a marriage proposal from anyone you serve it to!
Canned cannellini beans or another white bean will work well. For a meatier dish, you can use my Vegan Chicken recipe, homemade seitan bites, or baked tofu.
I recommend making the cream sauce with cashew cream for a thick and luxurious consistency. While store-bought vegan cream (I love Ripple’s dairy free half and half) or coconut milk also work, they’ll make the sauce slightly thinner. To help thicken it, stir a cornstarch slurry (made by mixing 1 tablespoon cornstarch with 3 tablespoons water in a small bowl) into the sauce at the end and gently simmer until it thickens.
The leftovers will keep for up to 5 days when stored in an airtight container in the fridge. Enjoy them for quick and easy meals or meal prep throughout the week! To reheat, zap the chickpeas and sauce in the microwave or warm them in a saucepan on the stove until heated through.
Marry Me Chickpeas
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 5 cloves garlic minced
- 1/2 cup sun dried tomatoes chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon red chili flakes
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- (2) 15-ounce cans chickpeas drained and rinsed
- 1 cup vegetable broth
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 1 cup vegan cream See Notes
- 2 cups baby spinach sliced
- 4-5 fresh basil leaves chopped
- optional: 1/2 cup grated vegan parmesan cheese I used Violife
Instructions
- In a large sauté pan over low-medium heat, warm the olive oil. Add the garlic and cook for 1-2 minutes, stirring frequently, until fragrant.
- Stir in the sun dried tomatoes, oregano, red chili flakes, salt and black pepper. Cook for 1 minute.
- Now add the chickpeas, broth, tomato paste, cream and spinach and stir well. Bring to a gentle simmer over medium heat and cook for about 5 minutes, until warm and the spinach has wilted. Taste; add more salt, pepper or red pepper flakes as desired.
- Remove from heat and stir in the fresh basil and grated parmesan. Serve immediately with crusty bread for dipping, or on to of cooked rice, pasta or even a baked sweet potato. Enjoy!
Video
Notes
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For vegan marry me chicken, try substituting the chickpeas for any vegan chicken you like, including my homemade seitan chicken. Or make my crispy baked tofu and use that instead.
- For the cream, you can use any store bought dairy free creamer (I love Ripple’s Half and Half), full fat coconut milk, another unsweetened plant milk or best of all, homemade cashew cream.
- To make cashew cream for the cream – Bring 2-3 cups of water to a boil (I use my tea kettle). Pour the hot water over ¾ cup raw cashews and let soak for 5 minutes or up to an hour. Drain the cashews and add to a high powered blender with 1 cup of fresh water and blend until creamy and smooth.
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If you use a store bought cream or coconut milk, you may want to thicken the chickpeas as the sauce won’t be as thick. To do this, mix 1 tablespoon cornstarch and 3 tablespoons water in a bowl, then stir it into the chickpea mixture at the end. It should thicken up nicely.
Really good! I’ve made it for people a few times and everybody loves it.
I’m so glad you are loving the recipe, Shifu! Thanks for sharing your awesome review! Happy cooking!
I kept putting off making this dish, and I’m glad I finally made it! It’s delicious!
I made the cashew cream and it made the dish really thick, so I added more Veggie broth. I served it with sourdough bread, YUM !!!
I’m planning to make this recipe for a crowd tomorrow but I realized I bought coconut cream instead of coconut milk. I know the recipe just says to use vegan cream, but in your notes you mention using full fat coconut milk and I don’t see coconut cream listed as one of the suggestions, so I’m wondering if it’ll affect the consistency/taste to use coconut cream instead? Thanks (and I love your recipes)!
You can use coconut cream, no problem, as long as it’s truly just coconut cream and not sweetened with sugar or anything. It will just be a lot creamier than if you used coconut milk, but I wouldn’t say that’s a bad thing at all!
Loved this recipe! I put it on top of my salad for my protein and didn’t need any salad dressing.
I can’t wait to make it again! Maybe today for lunch;). PS I am not vegan but I enjoy eating vegan dishes.
Hi Marcia. Thank you for using my recipes, and for taking time to share your terrific review and comments! I’m so glad you are enjoying my site, and appreciate your support! Wishing you lots of happy cooking!
This was soooo good and so quick to throw together. I was worried the sun dried tomatoes would be overpowering, but everything melded together so well. I had an abundance of kale in the garden still so I used that instead of spinach. This will definitely go into our regular rotation.
Hi Jessica. I enjoyed reading about your recipe experience! Thank you for sharing your ideas, as well as your amazing review! I love that you have garden grown kale! Wishing you lots of happy cooking!
Made it for a lenten meal. I have made 3 meals this week alone and they were all KEEPERS. I incorporated leeks in this recipe along with the garlic. I didn’t have sun-dried tomatoes so i just used a plum tomato and chopped it up. Because of nut allergies in my home i am staying with the coconut milk. Instead of vegetable broth I have discovered BETTER THAN BOUILLON is amazing (1 tsp+1c. Water = 1 c. Bouillon). Your recipes amaze me!!!!
Hi Angelique. My heart smiled with joy when I was reading your recipe experience and feedback! I am absolutely thrilled that you are loving my recipes! I love the idea of adding leeks to this recipe! Thank you for sharing your ideas, as well as your fantastic review! Wishing you lots of happy cooking!
This looks delicious! I can’t wait to try it!
You will love it! Happy cooking!
so easy and delicious! i added an onion in the beginning. will go into our repertoire. thank you for sharing this!
I’m so glad that you loved the recipe, Lucia, and that you will be making it often! Thank you for sharing your terrific review and comments! Happy cooking!
This recipe has made me a believer!! Made this tonight using cashew cream (cashews, splash of APV, nooch & 1tsp miso), added some vegan sausage to clean out the freezer a bit. Everything came together soooooooo nicely! I enjoyed it with some crusty sourdough. There will be leftovers to enjoy, which will be ladled over baked sweet potato. Thank you for this recipe, it lives up to its name!
You are welcome, Joyce! Your meal sounds delicious! I love the idea of serving leftovers over a baked sweet potato! Thank you for sharing your terrific review and recipe experience! Happy cooking!
Delicious! I made it with homemade cashew cream. So luxuriously creamy and rich.
Hi Kim. I’m so glad that you enjoyed the recipe! Thank you for sharing your stellar review! Wishing you happy cooking!
Made this tonight and it’s outstanding. My family rated it as one of the best chickpea recipes they have ever eaten. It will now be part of our regular dinner rotation. It’s really is outstanding.
Hi Diane. I’m so excited that you loved the recipe, and that it is going on your meal rotation! Thank you for sharing your terrific review and comments! Wishing you lots of happy cooking!
I’m not vegan and was just looking for something to do with chickpeas. So I used milk and cheddar cheese. WHAT a recipe. So exceeded expectations. I added some ground almonds to make it thicker since I only had milk. This is 100% going into our weekly rota. I made it with rice and roasted butternut squash which went SUPER well with the flavors. And I think the entire meal cost 1.87 or something, bc I bought the super cheap rice and used tinned plum tomatoes instead of roasted ones. 10/10
Hi Marie, I’m thrilled that you love the recipe and that it will become part of your meal rotation! Thank you for sharing your awesome review as well as your recipe experience! Wishing you lots of happy cooking!
Thank you for a fantastic recipe! Will definitely be making it again. I tried making the cashew cream and whilst I tried to make it smooth and creamy and tried blending it loads it still had this sand like/bitty texture. I soaked for about 15-20 minutes. What can I do to make it more smooth?
Thanks Christine! So what you need is a high-powered blender like a Vitamix. Are you using a regular blender? A high-powered blender can turn nuts and water into cream; a regular one just cannot do this.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I consider Nora to be the Michael Jordan of vegan recipes. Was unsure of what to do for dinner… But I had more-or-less everything I needed for this dish (except for the sun-dried tomatoes which I just subbed with 1/2 can tomato paste). Great stuff. I trust Nora with my life.
Hi Jakob. I am honored by your kind words, and also thrilled that you love and trust my recipes! Thank you for sharing your terrific review and comments! Wishing you lots of happy cooking!
This dish was quick and delicious. I added some sauteed mushrooms. Thank you for the recipe. I will make this again.
You are welcome, Kimberly! Sounds delicious with added mushrooms! Thanks for sharing your recipe experience and stellar review! Happy cooking!
Came together quickly and very good. We served it over brown rice and scoped it up toasted pita bread. Added this recipe to my Pinterest.
Hi Nora, thanks for a great recipe, I didn’t have cashews so I made with coconut milk and added the cornstarch to the milk, turned out great, made a 2nd time and used 1/2 cup tahini and was surprised that this also turned out great, served over bake butternut squash, brown rice and used naan bread. so many ways to enjoy
You are welcome, Pam! Thank YOU for sharing your recipe experience and ideas! I am thrilled you are loving the recipe! I love that you are finding several ways to prepare it! Wishing you lots of happy cooking!
Made this last night a bit hesitantly as my husband is a picky eater and bean dishes are hit and miss for him. We both loved it, and this will definitely be added to my rotation of dinners!
Husband is allergic to nuts so we used heavy cream and dairy cheese, but I’m totally confident that the vegan version is just as delicious.
I’m trying to cook a new meal each week starting in the new year and this was overwhelmingly approved by my husband (and myself)! Can’t wait to keep this in the rotation. Tried with sourdough first and excited to try it over rice or pasta next with the leftovers! I used coconut milk and then thickened with corn starch as noted – thank you for the alternative. I love cashews but tend to not make recipes that include them since they can be pricey. Turned out great!
Hi Kendall. I love your idea of new meals each week this upcoming year! I’m so glad that you tried the marry me chickpeas recipe, and that you loved it! It’s so fun to try it with different variations! Thank you for sharing your terrific review and comments! Wishing you lots of happy cooking!
Love your recipes.
This recipe is a Keeper!!! I have never made cashew milk before…WoW!!!
I’ve made this 3 times now and it’s so good and easy. Makes a lot of food and relatively cheap
Hi Francesca. How fantastic that you are loving the recipe! It is a pretty economical meal! Thank you for sharing your terrific review! Wishing you happy cooking!
Beyond delicious! Will be adding this to the meal rotation for sure!
Hi Kate. I’m so glad that you have found a new meal for your meal rotation list! Thank you for sharing your stellar review and comments! Wishing you happy cooking!
This was soo good! Used paprika instead of red pepper flakes and half and half thickened with cornstarch and water (as you suggested). Family says this is a ‘Keeper!’
Hi Lesley. How fabulous to find a new recipe that the family loves! Thank you for sharing your terrific comments and review! Wishing you lots of happy cooking!
Fantastic and super easy to make! I made this for Christmas eve over rice and my family loved it!
Made two versions, one had paprika instead of chili flakes for less spicy, and the other was made per the recipe. Everyone loved it and was asking for the recipe after! Cannot wait to make this part of my weekly rotation
Do you think it would work to cook slowly in the crockpot?
Yes, I do!
Any recommendations on how to best do this?
This recipe is one of my go to weeknight meals. Nora never disappoints and this is no exception! For those who doubt the prep time, the longest part about putting this together is opening the can, it really is as easy as they come!
Hi Racheal. Thanks for sharing your awesome review and feedback regarding the recipe! I am so thrilled that you are loving the recipe! Wishing you lots of happy cooking!