Name: BBQ chickpea wraps with marinated red onions & tahini dressing
Prep time: 1 h
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 1 h 10 min
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 2 red onions, peeled and sliced thin; ½ cup raspberry vinegar, red wine vinegar or Merlot vinegar; 3 Tbsp. date paste, agave syrup or other liquid sweetener; ¼ tsp. sea salt; ¼ cup tahini; 2 cloves garlic, minced; 1 ½ tbsp. lemon juice; 1 tbsp. rice vinegar; 3 tbsp. water; 1 tsp. tamari or soy sauce; 2 – 15 oz. (400 gm.) cans chickpeas, rinsed and drained; 1 tsp. tamari or soy sauce; 1 tsp smoked paprika; 2 tbsp. tomato paste; 1/2 tsp. ground cumin; 1 tsp. garlic powder; 1 tsp. maple syrup; 2 tsp. juice from a jar of pickled jalapenos (optional); 4 whole wheat wraps or tortillas; 2 cups fresh spinach or lettuce; 2 medium carrot shredded or cut into thin matchsticks

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BBQ chickpea wraps with marinated red onions and creamy tahini dressing with sliced carrots and spinach leaves on black plate with open wrap and bowl of onions and dressing. .

Get ready to launch the ultimate chickpea wraps with quick BBQ chickpeas, marinated red onions and creamy tahini dressing all wrapped up and ready to be devoured. It’s all here: Chickpeas with ingredients you probably already have on hand; quick marinated red onions; and lemon-tahini dressing that just makes everything better. Let’s get to it!

Three easy steps make the ultimate chickpea wraps

First, make quick marinated red onions

Since the first time I whipped them up and stuck them on my Mediterranean veggie burgers, I have become a total fanatic for quick pickled red onions. Easy to make (just slice your onions), toss them in a bowl, add vinegar and date paste, agave syrup (or another liquid sweetener), mix and let them get to it.

Black bowl filled with marinated red onions.

Marinated red onions are a quintessential condiment. I mean, they are the most perfect example I can think of (or taste) of an ingredient that adds flavor, color and another layer of texture to burgers, taco and yes, wraps. Make a bowl, get creative and you’ll discover they are also the perfect side to accompany many a main dish. Gravy replacement for stuffed seitan roast? Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it my friends.

Creamy tahini dressing in jar with ingredients and measuring spoons beside it.

5 minute (or less) creamy tahini dressing

If you’ve checked out a few of my recipes (Middle Eastern chickpea salad and zucchini salad come to mind), you already know that I am the chief advocate for tahini dressing in all its variations. There are several reasons for this that go beyond the fact that it just tastes so darned good. Tahini is the perfect thickener for dressings that are a direct line toward our pursuit of making the best oil free dressing and you don’t need a lot to get to a great consistency.

What exactly is tahini?

Tahini is quite simply, a paste made from sesame seeds. In its purest form, that’s the skinny. In our world of easy plant-based recipes it should be that simple. Unfortunately, when we’re in consumer mode, it’s a bit more muddled. Depending on the brand and the quality of said brand, you can find varying amounts of added oil in your precious tahini jar. Sometimes, it’s quite obvious when a big glob of oil is muddled in the top half of the jar and that’s well, pretty gross. Other times, you’ll want to take a much closer look at the labels to get the full spoonful.

Making it skinny

If you really want and oil free dressing and you’re using tahini as one of the ingredients (and you should, you so should), you may want to consider taking the plunge and making your own tahini. I’ve got a plan for that – skinny tahini. If you don’t want to spend the time, then do a bit of research about your local options and aim for the tahini that contains the least possible oil. You may discover that your oil reduced tahini is a bit grainier, but hey, it’s a small sacrifice and we’ll be blending our dressing with several tasty ingredients to help smooth it all out.

BBQ sauce in small white bowl with tomato paste, tamari, maple syrup, smoked paprika, garlic powder and cumin.

About those BBQ chickpeas…

Onions marinating? Check. Creamy tahini dressing ready to pour? Check. (Btw, you can stop tasting it now). All that’s left is the star of our chickpea wraps. That would be our quickest BBQ chickpeas.

My 5-minute BBQ sauce

I’m at peace with the fact that, we average a twice-a-week dose of BBQ chickpeas. When I suggest chickpea wraps, it goes unsaid that we’re talking about a few cans of chickpeas, drenched in a quick homemade BBQ sauce. It’s seriously not boring either. They are fantastic with everything from dressing up cauliflower lemon rice to tossing them into a mixed salad. It’s amazing how something so simple can make a complete meal out of some of our favorite sides.

And then it all goes in the pan

Is our plethora of BBQ chickpeas just because we can’t be bothered? Absolutely not. Ok, maybe it’s because they take just minutes to make. That’s why you want to cook them last when making your fabulous chickpea wraps. You’ll need about 10 minutes between making the sauce, rinsing and draining the chickpeas and that quick mix and heat. My advice? Do this quickly to avoid ‘grazing’ on those addictive chickpeas – or am I the only person who steals them out of bowl before cooking? I think not. Just admit it and let’s move on.

BBQ chickpea wraps, spinach, carrot sticks, marinated red onions and creamy tahini dressing on black plate with dressing and onions in separate bowls.

When good wrapping goes bad

Perhaps it’s just me, but quite often I when I make tacos and wraps, a longstanding, personal challenge emerges. Overstuffing. If you also suffer from this affliction of misjudgment, you will completely relate to this scenario. If not, learn from the rest of us.

Guilty as charged

Overstuffing it that dilemma when you start with a wrap or tortilla and your eyes takes full control of your spoon. It all starts out well enough. A bit of spinach, a few carrot sticks…And then, BBQ chickpeas, marinated red onions, creamy tahini dressing. And then, wait. I think I want a few more chickpeas, a few more onions and well, now I most certainly need more dressing. No, it’s not too big yet, I can still wrap it. I can still see a bit of tortilla beneath that mountain of ingredients. I’ll just add a bit more spinach to green it up a bit.

Oh, you know what happens next. Our well-intended idea of chickpea wraps becomes BBQ chickpea tostada or just a complete fall apart as we suffer a failure to wrap because we’ve done a complete overstuff. No wonder I usually manage only one wrap before declaring how filling those chickpeas are. Could it be because you’ve had twice the filling Denise?

Front view of BBQ chickpea wraps with marinated red onions and creamy tahini dressing with sliced carrots and spinach leaves on black plate.

Final thoughts

There was a time not so long ago when I would rather run into traffic than use a term like overstuff when it came to food. But as my repertoire of easy plant-based recipes has expanded, so has my ability to discuss food in happy ways. I can laugh about overstuffing, rather than retreat to a negative place in my head where overstuffed was equated with how I saw myself. Turning that corner hasn’t been as easy as changing what’s now on my plate. Changing what’s in your head, real or imagined doesn’t always change when you start feeling better or your pants get looser.

When real change happens (right in your head)

We all have the power to change some things. Not everything, so stop dwelling on what you can’t, like the past. If change is about your personal best, then first and foremost, make it about you, not in comparison to someone else. And make it right now. Grab that list of easy plant-based recipes, make overstuffing nothing more than a way to justify that second chickpea wrap tomorrow (you have an extra wrap now, don’t you?). Keep that list of easy plant-based recipes growing and act on them. Small, smooth, deliberate steps. You’ll get there. Peace.

BBQ chickpea wraps with marinated red onions & tahini dressing