This veganized take on chicken parm is made from chickpea cutlets that are cooked up with a crispy cornmeal crust, drenched in marinara sauce and sprinkled in cashew Parmesan cheese.
I almost never would’ve come up with this one. I don’t think I’ve ever actually even eaten chicken parm. Who needs it when there’s eggplant, right? And eggplant parm has always been a weakness. Growing up, it was my dish. What on earth else could a vegetarian order at a normal restaurant in the mid-nineties. Eggplant parm was a long time trusty sidekick. So of course it’s been on my list of things to veganize and blog for a while. Then the other day my husband suggested I try veganizing chicken parm, and it got me thinking. While eggplant will always have a place in my heart, this is different, this is vegan chicken Parmesan, and it’s pretty darn incredible.
Normally when I make something like this I coat it in panko to get a nice crispy crust. Lucky for me I got the idea in my head to try making these cutlets gluten free, so I went with cornmeal instead, both in the mixture and the coating. It was way better. Cornmeal on the inside helped give the mixture just the right texture, while cornmeal on the outside crusts up perfectly when pan-fried in a bit of olive oil.
I parmefied this dish by simply throwing on some marinara and sprinkling with cashew cheese. Feel free to put your own spin on it though. If you’re into store-bought vegan cheese, throw some on top. This would also be nice with some cashew ricotta. I ate my chickpea parm over pasta, but next time I’m definitely shoving it into a sandwich.
Vegan Chickpea Parmesan
Ingredients
For the Chickpea Cutlets
- 1-14 oz. can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- 1/2 cup cornmeal
- 1/4 cup chickpea flour
- 1 small onion, quartered
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 tbsp. chopped fresh parsley
- 2 tbsp. unflavored soy or almond milk
- 1 tbsp. ground flax seeds
- 1 tbsp. lemon juice
- salt and pepper to taste
For the Batter
- 1/2 cup unflavored soy or almond milk
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
- 2 tbsp. ground flax seeds
For the Cornmeal Coating
- 1/2 cup cornmeal
- 1 tsp. Italian seasoning blend
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1/4 tsp. black pepper
For Frying
- about 1/4 cup olive oil
For Serving
- 2-3 cups marinara sauce, store bought or homemade
- cashew Parmesan cheese
- cooked pasta, plus extra marinara sauce (optional)
Instructions
- Place all chickpea cutlet ingredients into food processor. Pulse just until well mixed and chickpeas are finely chopped. Transfer mixture to a container and refrigerate at least 30 minutes.
- Stir all batter ingredients together in a small bowl. Allow to sit for at least 10 minutes.
- Stir all cornmeal coating ingredients together in a separate bowl.
- Remove chickpea cutlet mixture from refrigerator and shape into 4 ovals, about 5 inches long and 3 inches wide.
- Generously coat the bottom of a large nonstick skillet with oil and place over medium heat. When oil is hot, dip each side of a chickpea cutlet into batter, then into cornmeal mixture to coat. Place in skillet. Repeat for as many cutlets will fit in the skillet without overcrowding. Cook until browned and crispy on bottoms, about 5 minutes. Flip and cook another 5 minutes on opposite sides. Repeat until all cutlets are cooked, adding oil to the skillet as needed between batches.
- Serve topped with marinara sauce, optionally over pasta and sprinkled with cashew Parmesan.
Recipe Notes
Prep time includes chill time for the chickpea cutlet mixture.
This recipe makes more than enough batter and cornmeal coating.
Nutrition information does not include pasta.
Looks AMAZING!!
How fine is the cornmeal you used? Over here in South Africa I can get very fine cornmeal (not like cornstarch but very fine) then something a bit coarser and then polenta. Which would you recommend for this recipe?
I’d say go with the middle option. The variety I used was a bit finer than polenta, and definitely much coarser than cornstarch.
Wow!
Nourishing Amelia | Food, Health and Lifestyle Blogger
Alissa you are seriously a genius. This looks amazing! So creative.
OMG! I have to make this. It looks absolutely delicious.
I must make this!
Ridiculous question…but is the 1/4 cup oil listed with the coating ingredients part of the coating or is it the oil to fry them in?????
For frying. Thank you for catching that!
I HAVE to try this recipe!!!
Hi,
Could you use arrow root instead of corn starch? Thanks!
I’ve never had a problem swapping arrowroot for cornstarch, so I think it should work. Enjoy!
Hello I am from Germany and I want to try this recepy. I am a bit confuses about the 1-14 oz can of chickpeas. Could you tell me what this is in gr or ml? Or if it is a big or small can? Because I coulndt really find a answer :D
It’s about 415 milliliters. Enjoy!
Sorry, but the oil and frying are too many wasted calories and nutrient poor. Isn’t there a way to bake these and still be flavorful?
I haven’t tried baking them, so I don’t know. Feel free to try any variation you like.
Okay Waowwww I wan’t to make this
Alissa, we really enjoyed this recipe! The cutlets were crispy in the outside, creamy texture on the inside with a delightfully subtle flavor. Thank you.
Tried this recipe tonight. I know it will be a keeper. I’ve never cooked with corn meal so when I picked it up I didn’t notice the texture of it. I happened to buy a medium coarse and I found that it made it too gritty. Next time I’ll go with a finer corn meal for the cutlets and I might just use panko breadcrumbs for the coating. I think I made my patties too thick as it was soft in the middle, unless it’s supposed to be? Flavor was great and I will be making it again :)
Ah, I’ll have to check out some different types of cornmeal to see how they work out. I think the one I was using was relatively fine. Glad you enjoyed them though! Thanks for popping in to let me know. :)
What is the maximum amount of time I should chill the chickpea mixture? I was wondering if I could mix it up the night before and use the mixture the following evening for dinner- just wondering if it will end up being too dry?
I think you’d be fine making it up do a day in advance, and it shouldn’t dry out too much as long as you store it in a tightly sealed container.
Hi! This looks amazing and I’ve been thinking about making chickpea burgers like this. Unfortunately, I’m allergic to corn so I’m wondering what I can replace the corn meal and corn starch with? Thanks in advance!
I think panko breadcrumbs and arrowroot powder would be your best bets!
A delicious and easy to make recipe. Will definitely make it again.
I’m glad you enjoyed it!! Thanks Gayle!
Mine turned out crunchy on the outside but mushy on the inside. Any thoughts as to what I did wrong?
Otherwise it was delicious.
The only thing I can think of is overdoing it with the food processor. Make sure the mixture stays chunky so you’ve got some texture on the inside! :)
Can’t find chickpea flour at my grocery store…any suggestions for an alternative?
I think wheat flour would work, but I haven’t tried it so I’m not 100% sure!
Did you look for “garbanzo bean flour”? I wasn’t finding it eother until I changed what I was looking for LOL
I think I’m going to attempt this without oil in the air fryer!! Looks delish!!
I hope you enjoy it!!
I made this recipe last night but shaped them into tenders, instead. Plus, I used peeled (skin-removed) chickpeas and mashed it all by hand. I think this helped make a chunky texture easier. Anyway, they were so yummy and as reminiscent of chicken as I have gotten in a long time. I love that they are soy-free and gluten-free. Thank you for this recipe–I will tinker around with the spices in the future to try making different chicken flavor combos :)
Yay!! I’m so glad you enjoyed it! Thanks Melanie!
My patties fell apart when I tried to shape them
Sorry to hear that! You could try adding a splash of water if the mixture seems too dry (some brands of canned chickpeas are dryer than others). Otherwise, try chilling the mixture for a bit.
how long in advance can they be made? can they be reheated in the oven? frozen and reheated?
I think they’d keep just fine in the fridge for about 2 days and about 3 months in the freezer.
Made this yesterday. The recipe is simple enough to make but I found when coating them they were difficult to handle, I made two and put the rest of the mixture into a small dish put a layer of batter on top then the cornmeal mixture, a few blobs of vegan butter and put it in the oven. It worked. I put the two cutlets in the fridge before cooking but when fried they turned out really well and were really yummy, as was the marinara sauce. I topped mine with nutritional yeast too. Another tasty recipe looking forward to putting the leftover cutlet in a sandwich. Thanks
They can be a little tricky! Did it seem like the cutlets needed to be firmer for dipping? Adding a little extra chickpea flour might help with that. I’m glad you found a work around and glad you enjoyed them!