General Tso’s Chickpeas

By wing118677

Ingredients

• Marinate Chickpeas:
• 1 tb. soy sauce (or tamari for GF)
• 1 tb. mirin (or dry sherry)
• 1 and 1/2 c. cooked chickpeas (equal to 1 15-oz. can), rinsed and drained
• For Sauce:
• 1/4 c. + 2 tb. vegetable broth
• 1 and 1/2 tb. tomato paste
• 1/2 tb. natural peanut butter
• 1 tb. soy sauce (or tamari for GF)
• 1 tb. rice vinegar
• 1 tb. + 1 tsp. coconut sugar (or other sugar)
• 2 tsp. sriracha or other chili sauce
• 1 tsp. toasted sesame oil
• 1 tsp. prepared mustard
• 1 tsp. cornstarch
• 1/8 tsp. freshly ground black pepper or white pepper
• General Tso's stir fry:
• ~1 tb. neutral oil (I used sunflower seed oil)
• 1/4 of a large onion (or 1 shallot), thinly sliced
• 1 large broccoli crown, cut into florets
• 1 red bell pepper, cut into thin strips
• 1 tsp. minced ginger
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• General Tso's sauce (above)
• marinated chickpeas (above)
• (optional) green onions, sesame seeds, and fresh red onion, for serving
• (optional) cooked rice, for serving

Preparation

Step 1

Instructions For marinating the chickpeas:
Stir together the soy sauce and mirin in a bowl and add the chickpeas. Let sit for 10 minutes (I do this first and let them marinate while I prepare the sauce and veggies).

For the sauce:
Whisk together all of the sauce ingredients and set aside.

For the stir-fry:
If you plan to garnish your dish with extra diced red onion, put the amount you want for garnish in a small bowl with cold water now. This will help to mellow out its flavor.
Heat oil in a large skillet over high heat. When the oil is hot, add the onion, stirring continuously.
Continuing to stir, add the broccoli, bell pepper strips, ginger, and garlic.
Stir in the General Tso's sauce. Drain the chickpeas and stir them in too. Cook for 1-2 more minutes, continuing to stir frequently, or until the mixture is hot throughout and the sauce has coated the chickpeas and vegetables. Add more soy sauce or chili sauce to taste.
Serve over rice if desired; garnish as desired with green onions, sesame seeds, and drained soaked red onion from above.

Notes
If your pan is large enough, you can keep the vegetables and chickpeas separate by pushing the vegetables to one side of the pan before you add the chickpeas. But I mostly just did that for presentation :)

For this recipe, it's important to do all of the prep work before you start cooking anything because you need to be stirring the whole time.

In a pinch, you can use rice vinegar instead of mirin or sherry.