Sweet & Crispy Miso Chickpea Bowl

Don’t you hate it when you’re really busy at work and can’t use your time to write blogs! Kidding – for my colleagues that read this (ok fine, half kidding). I only have enough time for the recipe instead of my usual ironic intro. Some of you might be sighing in relief. That’s ok, Google spyware will show me who you are.

In the meantime, I present to you a sweet & crispy miso bowl for your weekend dinner plans. Chickpeas for protein, fibre, folate (folic acid) and manganese and miso for Vitamin K, manganese, copper and zinc. Glow in a bowl.

Sweet & Crispy Miso Chickpea Bowl

Ingredients:

• 2 cups quinoa (or other grain of choice), cooked
• 3 carrots, peeled and chopped into thin strips
• Half a punnet of mushrooms
• 5-6 asparagus sticks, trimmed
• 3-4 cloves garlic
• Soya sauce
• Vegan butter
• Olive oil
• Pumpkin seeds

Miso Chickpeas:

• 1 can chickpeas, rinsed, drained and dried with paper towel
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp yellow or brown miso paste (this is the savoury paste – white miso is sweet)
• 1 tbsp coconut sugar (can use normal brown sugar)
• 2 tsp chilli & garlic sauce 

Dressing

• 1 tsp chili garlic sauce 
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tbps soya sauce
• 2 tbsp fresh lime juice
• 4 tbsp rice vinegar 
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp lazy or chopped garlic

Instructions:

1. Cook your grains according to instructions and set aside.
2. Add sauce ingredients for miso chickpeas to a bowl and stir well to combine. Add chickpeas and shake to coat evenly. Place chickpeas into greased dish and bake in the oven at 200 degrees for 25 mins. Once time is up, leave chickpeas in oven with the door closed for a further 5-10 minutes. They should be dark and crispy when you take them out.
3. To make the dressing, add all ingredients to a bowl and whisking well to combine. Taste as you go and adjust the flavour as needed – more lime or vinegar for acidity, soya sauce for saltiness or sugar for sweetness. The flavour should be very intense as it will soften once spread over the dish.
4. Cook asparagus and mushrooms in a pan with olive oil, vegan butter and garlic for a lovely garlic butter flavour. Remove from pan and add carrots, cooking until just tender with bite of crisp. Add soya sauce just before removing from pan for saltiness.
5. Toast pumpkin seeds by adding to a dry pan and cooking until you hear them pop. Make sure you don’t overcook as they burn quickly.
6. Add all ingredients to a bowl and serve.