Buffalo Chickpea Taquitos Easy Recipe (gluten-free)

Sharing is caring!

Buffalo Chickpea taquitos are super-healthy, tasty and easy snacks that you can prepare at home easily. With simple ingredients, you can get a (gluten-free) vegan snack ready within half an hour, much to the surprise of your family and friends.

Usually, taquitos are stuffed with meat, especially chicken. However, you can prepare them with plant-based ingredients, making them a vegan-friendly snack.

These Buffalo Chickpea Taquitos are healthy not only because they are made from plant-based ingredients, but also because they are baked and not fried. You can add spices and flavors to the filling as per your choice, as there is no hard and fast rule for making this dish.

Here is how you can make vegan, gluten-free buffalo chickpea taquitos the authentic way.

Ingredients Needed

For the buffalo sauce

• Chickpeas – 1 can (of 15 ounces) or 1 ½ cups freshly cooked
• Oil – 1 tablespoon
• Onion – 1 medium-sized (finely chopped)
• Garlic cloves – 2 (minced)
• Bell Peppers – 1 (finely chopped)
• Tomato Sauce – ½ cup
• Hot Sauce or any spicy sauce – 3 tablespoons (or as per your choice)
• Plant-based vegan milk – 2 tablespoons
• Balsamic Vinegar – 1 tablespoon
• Onion Powder, Cumin Powder, Garlic Powder, Smoked Paprika – 1 teaspoon each
• Coconut Sugar or Cane Sugar – ¾ teaspoon
• Salt, Chili Powder and Pepper – as per taste

For the Taquitos

• Tortillas – 10 (gluten-free tortillas that have a diameter of 14cm)

For the Dip

• Coconut milk or any plant-based milk – ¾ cup (about 180ml)
• Nutritional Yeast – 3 tabl3espoons
• Tapioca flour, cornstarch, or arrowroot starch – 2 tablespoons
• Sea Salt – ½ teaspoon
• Onion Powder and Garlic Powder – ½ teaspoon each
• Smoked Paprika – a small pinch

Process of making the Buffalo Chickpea Taquitos

• Drain the chickpeas in a bowl and mash them well.
• Heat a pan on a stove and keep it medium flame. Sprinkle some oil and sauté the onion and bell peppers for about 3 minutes. Add all the spice mixtures into the pan and sauté for another 3 minutes.
• To this mixture, add the mashed chickpeas and other ingredients for the sauce into the pan and mix the contents well. Cook on low heat for about 5 minutes before switching off the stove.
• Now, you can check the mixture to check if you need to add more salt or spice powders. Adjust the taste as needed and set the mixture aside.
• Preheat the oven to 410 degrees F, and get the baking sheets ready by lining them with parchment paper.
• Spread out the tortillas on a flat surface and fill about 2 teaspoons of the sauce filling into each tortilla. Roll them tightly with your hand. Place the rolled tortillas on the baking sheets in such a way that their seam side faces downward.
• Place the rolls next to one another on the baking sheet and brush the tortillas with some oil.
• Drizzle some vegan sauce over the rolls. To make the sauce, you need to add all the ingredients mentioned “for the dip” and mix the contents well. Next, turn on the stove and cook these contents on a medium flame. Keep stirring the contents continuously and cook until you notice the mixture boiling. When it starts boiling, cook the sauce on a low flame until it becomes stretchy and thick. Now switch off the flame, and your sauce is ready within minutes.
• Bake the tortillas for about 15 t0 20 minutes. The tortillas would have turned golden brown by now.
• Fresh, homemade vegan and baked chickpea taquitos are now ready.

Some points to note

• Many times you may get frustrated when the tortillas get ripped when you are rolling them. You can make use of a simple trick to avoid this problem. Before rolling the stuffing inside the tortillas, you have to microwave them for about 20 to 30 seconds so that they get softened up. When microwaving tortillas, keep them covered, to quicken the softening process.
• You can serve these taquitos with any type of vegan queso dips, sour cream dips, guacamole, or salsa.
• To get a balance of the flavors right, you can mix homemade cilantro sauce in addition to the spicy buffalo sauce. The only 4 ingredients you need for making this sauce are fresh cilantro, lime juice, mayonnaise and salt. Blend all four ingredients in a food processer until the contents get mixed well.
• If you want to make this dish healthier than the version explained here, you can prepare a topping of different vegetables while you roll the filling into the tortillas. You can use cabbage, carrots, radishes and other vegetables of your choice in the filling.
• You can make use of cashews to make a quick queso recipe. A creamy and cheesy dip goes well with these spicy tortillas filled with spicy buffalo sauce. To make the sauce, you can follow these steps:
  • First soak about 1 1/3 cups of cashews in hot water. After 20 minutes, drain the cashews into a blender.
  • You can add the other ingredients used for the sauce in the blender along with the cashews. These include 1 tablespoon each of onion powder, garlic powder, chili powder, tomato puree, hot sauce and paprika, about 2 cups of plant-based vegan milk, some salt and 1 garlic clove.
  • Blend the contents well and adjust the salt/spice consistency.
  • Your dip for all vegan dishes is now ready. You can dip the spicy Buffalo chickpea taquitos in this cashew queso, and enjoy a healthy, filling and colorful vegan snack.
• For very crispy buffalo chickpea taquitos, you can fry them in hot oil after taking them out from the oven. However, we don’t recommend this step, if you are health-conscious. On the other hand, brushing the tortillas with very little oil before baking them does make the taquitos quite crispy.
• It is important to check for the salt and spice before applying the mixture to the taquitos. You cannot add salt or spice powders after this stage, so it is better to taste the contents properly before spreading them well on the tortillas.