Roasted Chickpeas and Sweet Potatoes with Tahini (Sesame) Sauce

This delicious recipe for roasted chickpeas and sweet potatoes is one of my favorite vegetarian recipes. It's bright and hearty. Since everything cooks in the oven, it's perfect for warming your house in the winter.

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We can all use more go-to vegetarian dinners, can't we? This one has the bonus of using primarily pantry items, aside from the sweet potatoes, which usually keep for a few weeks (in my house at least).

For this meal, I roast sweet potatoes wedges and toss some chickpeas with them partway through the cook time.  The sweet potatoes are a little sweet and spicy, and the chickpeas are a little crunchy and spicy as well. But once they're done, I add a bright tahini-lime sauce on top, which really makes the dish. It's delicious.

This recipe is actually something I've been hoping to share with you for a while. It's been about a year since I tried the Roasted Yams and Chickpeas recipe from Smitten Kitchen. Deb originally made it with a yogurt sauce, but neither Alex and I care for yogurt sauces, so we just tossed them with lime juice instead. Several months later, I adapted this tahini sauce from Minimalist Baker's Sweet Potato Chickpea Buddha Bowls, using honey and lime juice instead, to top the sweet potatoes and chickpeas. Both ways were delicious, but the tahini sauce gave the dish a little more nuance than just tossing everything with lime juice.

I cut back on the honey and olive oil in the recipe, and we didn't miss it. Every time I made this, Alex and I wanted more chickpeas, so I doubled them. I think the recipe was supposed to be a side dish, but honestly, we prefer it as a main dish with the extra chickpeas. As a side dish, I think you'd want to use only one can of chickpeas.

We get dinner and leftovers from this. You can save the sauce to have on the side with leftovers, or toss it all together when you store leftovers in the fridge - both work fine.

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5 from 1 vote

Roasted Chickpeas and Sweet Potatoes

This brightly flavored vegetarian/vegan meal is delicious and satisfying. 

Prep Time10 minutes mins

Cook Time40 minutes mins

Total Time50 minutes mins

Servings: 4

Author: Leona Konkel

Ingredients

Sweet Potatoes

• 2 pounds sweet potatoes (cut into about 24 wedges)
• 1 tablespoons olive oil
• ½ tablespoon honey (should be able to use maple syrup if avoiding honey)
• ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes

Chickpeas

• 2 14-ounce cans chickpeas (drained, rinsed, and patted dry)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• ½ teaspoon smoked paprika

Tahini Sauce

• ¼ cup tahini
• 1 tablespoon honey (can be able to use maple syrup if avoiding honey)
• 2-3 tablespoons lime juice (to taste)
• 2-4 tablespoons water (to thin the sauce)
• salt and pepper

Instructions

• Heat oven to 425F. Line one or two large baking sheets with foil. (You can crowd all of this onto one very large sheet pan, which I do, but things may not crisp as much.) Spray foil well with cooking spray or coat with oil.
• In a large bowl, toss sweet potatoes with 1 tablespoon olive oil, ½ tablespoon honey, and ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes. Spread out on prepared baking sheet(s). Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake for 15 minutes. (At this point, you will add the chickpeas.)
• Meanwhile, in a bowl (I usually use the one I used for sweet potatoes), mix chickpeas with 1 tablespoon olive oil, smoked paprika, and salt to taste. Spread the chickpeas around the partially cooked sweet potatoes. (Alternatively, you can place chickpeas on their own baking sheet.) Return to the oven and bake for another 15 minutes.
• Meanwhile, prepare tahini sauce. Whisk together ¼ cup tahini, 1 tablespoon honey, and 2 tablespoons lime juice. Whisk in 2 tablespoons water to make it thin enough to drizzle over the sweet potatoes and chickpeas; add more water if necessary. Stir in extra lime juice and salt to taste. It will thicken as it rests.
• After the sweet potatoes and chickpeas have baked together for 15 minutes, flip sweet potatoes and stir chickpeas around. Return to oven and bake another 5-10 minutes, until the sweet potatoes have nice color and chickpeas are crisped.
• Divide sweet potatoes and chickpeas between plates and top with dressing.

Notes

We enjoy using 2 cans of chickpeas in this to serve it as a satisfying meal. You can cut it back to 1 can, though; I would recommend that if serving this dish as a side. If doing so, cut back on the olive oil and smoked paprika as well. 

You can use a single large baking sheet for this meal, but the chickpeas may not crisp as much.