Baked Crispy Chickpea Tacos

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

These chickpeas tacos taste fried even though you bake them in the oven. Brushing the corn tortillas with olive oil does the trick. These tacos have so much wonderful texture with crunch on the outside and the soft chickpea filling. 

This vegetarian taco recipe can be an appetizer or a weeknight dinner. Serve them on their own with the rest of your game day spread. Or pair them with rice and a salad to turn them into a meal for taco Tuesday.

While I was testing this recipe, my son told me that our kitchen smelled like our favorite neighborhood taqueria. That was the biggest compliment. I even used the same method to make him crispy baked chicken tacos to suit his picky palette.

The Ingredients

This is what you need:

For tacos

• Chickpeas: The recipe calls for 2 cans of chickpeas (also known as garbanzo beans). After you drain and rinse them in a colander, pat them with a towel and pull off all the skins.
• Seasonings: I include a mix of cumin, chili powder, garlic powder, paprika, oregano, kosher salt and black pepper.
• Red onions give the chickpeas a nice sharp accent. They are my first choice, but you can substitute with white onions or yellow onions.
• Cabbage: You can use shredded red cabbage or green cabbage. When it bakes in the tacos, the cabbage will soften a little.
• Mexican cheese blend: You don’t need that much cheese. It really acts more like the glue to hold the tacos together. Also, remember that even though these are folded over, they are not meant to be quesadillas. That’s why I go light on the cheese. Typically these blends have monterey jack cheese, cheddar cheese and queso blanco. A blend of just jack and cheddar will work too.
• Corn tortillas are gluten-free, and they are a better choice than flour tortillas because when you bake them, they will be crunchy.
• Olive oil helps the seasonings coat the chickpeas. It also encourages browning in the oven. You also brush the tortillas on both sides with oil. This is important to get them crispy.
• Cilantro: I garnish the baked tacos with chopped cilantro before serving them. If you hate cilantro, then leave it out. 

For sauce

• Avocado: For the creamiest sauce, use a ripe avocado. It will blend with everything else more easily.
• Tahini: This sesame seed paste is an ingredient in hummus, so it makes sense with chickpeas no matter the recipe. 
• Lime: Always use fresh lime juice. Bottled citrus has preservatives and extra ingredients, and it does not taste as good.
• Cilantro: Because I know this fresh herb is such a love-it or hate-it ingredient, you can swap with sliced scallions to go for a nice onion flavor.
• Kosher salt and black pepper: I include a pinch of each to season the sauce.

Leftovers & Storage

You can save leftover tacos in an airtight container in the fridge up to 3 days. Then reheat them on a lined sheet pan in at 400-degrees F oven for 5 minutes per side. They won’t be quite as crispy as when you first made them, but they will still be good. Put the avocado sauce in a mason jar in the fridge to store it. Let it sit out at room temperature for 15 minutes before stirring it and serving it with the tacos.

To freeze the tacos, put a piece of parchment paper or wax paper in between each one to prevent them from sticking together. Then freeze them in the same container. Reheat them in a 400-degree F oven. You don’t need to thaw them first. Frozen tacos will take longer than refrigerated leftovers to reheat. Give them 7-8 minutes per side. You can freeze them up to 1 month.