These sweet and sour chickpeas with broccoli and sticky rice make a simple and delicious lunch or dinner. Tangy chickpeas, juicy and tender broccoli, and the perfect rice to pair it with.
Sponsorship Disclosure: This post is sponsored by USA Rice.
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Bowling into lunch time with sweet and sour chickpeas with broccoli. The concept is inspired by sweet and sour chicken, but I don’t use the exact same ingredients that are found in a typical sweet and sour chicken. Instead, this highlights sweetness from a mango (orange juice also works), balanced out with rice vinegar and lime juice, and a little red chili flakes. You’ll only need one pan, 30 minutes, and perhaps a sunny spot to enjoy it in.
USA Rice is committed to making sure US rice production is sustainable for the environment and fair to those involved in production, including farmers and related businesses. Here I’m using US-grown short-grain rice! They ensure that U.S.-grown rice is held to the highest quality, processing, and food safety standards.
How to Make Sweet and Sour Chickpeas with Broccoli
Identify the sweetener.
Usually, I would use orange juice. But I had a mango on hand and figured why not!
Boil the broccoli.
Pre-cooking the broccoli a little bit is super helpful for making sure it cooks all the way through when it hits the pan. This allows the broccoli to quickly become juicy and tender, which is how I like it.
Mix the sauce.
Simply add soy sauce, rice vinegar, cornstarch, and chili garlic sauce to a bowl.
Cook it.
Just start with ginger and chili flakes in sesame oil. Then add tomato paste, chickpeas, broccoli, sesame seeds, mango puree or orange juice, and the mixed sauce. Cover and cook until both the chickpeas and broccoli are fully cooked and soft!
Serve with rice.
A short-grain sticky rice would be perfect for this. I don’t make sticky rice often, so here are the proportions I used!
Sweet and Sour Chickpeas
Ingredients
- 1 14 oz. can of chickpeas *sub 1.5 cups cooked chickpeas
- ¼ cup mango puree from ~ 1 medium mango
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
- 1.5 inches ginger, grated
- ½ tsp red chili flakes
- ¼ cup tomato paste from 1 medium tomato
- 1 head of broccoli, separated into florets
- 1.5 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp rice vinegar
- ½ tbsp cornstarch
- 1 tbsp chili garlic sauce
- 1 tbsp sesame seeds
- ½ tbsp lime juice
- for serving: 1 cup short-grain rice cooked to package instructions
Instructions
- Process the mango in a small food processor until smooth and creamy.
- Boil the broccoli in the pot of water for a minute. Then take it out of the hot water, but no need to put it in an ice bath.
- Add sesame oil to a pan over medium heat. When the oil is hot, add the ginger. Stir for a minute or two, until the raw ginger smell goes away. Add chili flakes and stir for another minute.
- Add tomato paste and stir for a couple minutes until most of the juices evaporate.
- Add chickpeas and broccoli. Cover and cook for 7-8 minutes. In this time, mix the ingredients for the sauce in a small bowl: soy sauce, rice vinegar, cornstarch, chili garlic sauce.
- Add the sesame seeds, mango puree, and the mixed sauce. Stir so it spreads throughout. Cover and cook for 10 minutes, or until the chickpeas are soft. Finish with lime juice.
- Serve with any short-grain rice – sticky rice, jasmine rice, or coconut rice!
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