My marry me chickpeas are simmered in a luscious, creamy sun-dried tomato sauce with baby spinach and fresh basil. This decadent stew is amazing with rice, over pasta, or with a piece of crusty bread!
Are you familiar with the viral Marry Me Chicken recipe? It took a while to get on my own radar, because chicken recipes aren't exactly my thing. But eventually I did come across it on social media, and frankly, the sauce sounded so good that I decided I needed to use it in a vegan recipe. Enter Marry Me Chickpeas.
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This recipe uses the same basic ingredients and flavors as the original Marry Me Chicken recipe, including garlic, fresh basil and sun-dried tomatoes. Instead of heavy cream, we'll using cashew cream to keep it dairy-free. And since chickpeas make a great alternative to chicken in lots of other recipes, like my chickpea mushroom marsala and chickpea noodle soup, I decided to use them here.
The resulting dish was absolutely heavenly! It's flavor-packed, indulgent, and surprisingly easy to make. Give this a try and you'll love it...but before you ask, I'm already married!
Ingredients You'll Need
Below you'll find a list of ingredients in this recipe, with notes and substitutions. Scroll all the way to the bottom of the post to see the full recipe, including the amount of each ingredient.
- Raw cashews. These are the base for our creamy sauce. We'll be soaking them in water, then blending them up. Make sure you're using raw cashews, and not roasted.
- Vegetable broth. I like using a vegan "chicken" style broth for this recipe, such as Better Than Bouillon's No Chicken Base or Imagine's No Chicken Broth. Regular old vegetable broth will work just fine, though!
- Olive oil.
- Garlic.
- Dried thyme. Got some fresh thyme on hand? Triple the amount and you can use it!
- Red pepper flakes. These will add some heat to the dish. Feel free to omit them for a milder version, or use extra if you like it hot!
- Chickpeas. Using canned chickpeas helps keep this recipe super quick and easy! If you prefer to cook them from scratch, don't let me stop you! You'll need four cups of cooked chickpeas.
- Sun-dried tomatoes. I used bagged sun-dried tomatoes, but oil packed will work fine — just drain them well before adding them to the recipe.
- Baby spinach.
- Fresh basil.
- Salt and pepper.
How It's Made
Below is a detailed photo tutorial on how to make this dish. Scroll all the way down if you'd like to skip right to the recipe!
Step 1: Place your soaked, drained cashews into a blender with one cup of your vegetable broth, then blend until the mixture is completely smooth and resembles milk.
Step 2: Heat your olive oil up in a skillet, then add minced garlic, thyme, and red pepper fakes. Sauté the mixture for about a minute, stirring constantly to prevent it from burning.
Step 3: Add the cashew cream, some more broth, chickpeas, and sun-dried tomatoes to the skillet, then bring the mixture to a simmer. Let it cook for about ten minutes, to thicken the sauce.
Step 4: Stir in the baby spinach, and let everything simmer for a couple minutes longer, just to wilt the spinach.
Tip: Cashew cream scorches easily, so make sure to stir your chickpeas often while they cook, and scrape the bottom of the skillet with the spoon when you do so.
Step 5: Take the skillet off of heat, stir in the basil, then season your marry me chickpeas with some salt and pepper to taste. They're now ready to enjoy!
Leftovers & Storage
Leftover marry me chickpeas will keep in an airtight container in the fridge for about three days, or in the freezer for about three months. The sauce tends to thicken up as it sits, so add some water when you reheat it if needed.
Variations
- Switch up the beans. You can make this recipe with most varieties of canned beans. Try lentils, cannellini beans, or butter beans!
- Switch up the greens. Other types of greens like kale or chard can be used, but because they tend to take longer to cook than ten minutes, I recommend precooking them by steaming or boiling them in water until they're tender.
- Add veggies. Veggies that can be fully cooked in under ten minutes can be added at the same time as the chickpeas. Broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, and zucchini are a few that will work. Be sure to chop them finely, and don't add more than a handful or two.
Frequently Asked Questions
It is!
I love them over pasta (especially topped with some vegan Parmesan cheese!), or paired up with some crusty bread. You could also serve them over rice, quinoa, polenta, or couscous.
Sure! Just sauté the garlic and spices in some water or vegetable broth.
Full-fat coconut milk will technically work, but I don't particularly like it in this recipe. I find that the flavor clashes with the sun-dried tomatoes. A vegan heavy cream substitute would be a better choice.
More Vegan Dinner Recipes
Like this recipe? If so, please stop back and leave me a review and rating below if you try it! Also be sure to follow me on Facebook, Pinterest or Instagram, or subscribe to my newsletter for more recipes like this one!
📖 Recipe
Marry Me Chickpeas
Ingredients
- ½ cup raw cashews, soaked in water 4 to 8 hours, drained and rinsed
- 2 cups vegetable broth, divided
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- ½ teaspoon dried thyme
- ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- 2 (15.5 ounce/439 gram) cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- ½ cup julienne cut sun-dried tomatoes
- 2 cups baby spinach
- ½ cup chopped fresh basil
- Salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Place the cashews into a blender with 1 cup of the broth, then blend until completely smooth. This can take a few minutes if your blender isn't high-powered. Set the mixture aside for now.
- Coat the bottom of a large skillet with the olive oil and place it over medium heat. Give the oil a minute to heat up, then add the garlic, thyme, and red pepper flakes. Sauté the mixture for about one minute, stirring constantly, until it becomes very fragrant.
- Stir in the cashew mixture, along with the remaining cup of broth, chickpeas, and sun-dried tomatoes. Raise the heat and bring the liquid to a boil, then lower the heat and let it simmer for about ten minutes, until the liquid thickens up and is very creamy. Add some water if it becomes too thick at any point. Stir the mixture frequently and scrape the bottom of the skillet with your spoon to avoid scorching the cashew cream.
- Stir in the spinach and continue simmering the mixture for about two minutes, until the spinach has completely wilted.
- Remove the skillet from heat and stir in the basil. Season the mixture with salt and pepper to taste.
- Serve.
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This was so good! An instant family favorite- even my picky teen had multiple servings. It's also super fast and easy, great for a busy evening.
Do you have a blender or processor you recommend
I have a Vitamix and I love it. Works great for recipes like this one! I can't recall the model, but it's the one from Costco.
Delicious! I will be making this on repeat.
This turned out amazing! We had is with some really good sourdough bread and it was a meal. We will be having this again and sharing it with friends.
Delicious creamy goodness. My non-vegan friend loved it. Will definitely be making again. The only changes I made were use butter beans instead of chickpeas and left out the spinach.
Swapped Italian seasoning for the dried thyme and parsley for the basil, because I had those items on hand. Also added half a diced onion before adding in garlic and other ingredients. I was a little intimidated by making the cashew cream but it was super easy, even with my little bullet blender. Delicious, served over a wild rice blend.
Hey Alissa, this is a keeper.. in fact.. it's what I call company good and wouldn't hesitate to serve it to folks for dinner.
While we used spinach (and it was excellent), our next attempt might be 1 handful spinach and 1 handful basil (not Thai Basil). and see how that works out..
Wonderful recipe; Super delicious and easy to make. Thanks so much!
Is there another ingredient I could use in lace of cashews due to a nut allergy?
You can use a vegan heavy cream substitute in place of the cashews and a portion of the broth - maybe half of it, but you might have to play around to get the right ratio. Silk and Califa Farms make products that would work. Full-fat coconut milk will also work, but I personally don't like the flavor of coconut milk in this particular type of sauce (it might just me a me thing though!). You'll need to use a little extra salt if you go with either of these alternatives.
Another Winner I'll definitely be making with rice or potatoes or pasta or just a spoon.
Thank You