I love to glam up simple ingredients like chickpeas, rice, and cabbage with spices and a delicious sauce. This chickpeas and rice dinner is made with simple ingredients and is cooked to completion in about 40 minutes, both on the stove and in the oven. Jasmine rice, canned chickpeas, onions, garlic, vegetable stock and spices form a pilaf-like base for addictively crispy roasted pieces of cabbage. A finishing touch of sweet mustard dressing and toasted almonds makes this a satisfying vegan dinner.
I could eat the entire tray of roasted cabbage in this recipe by myself. It’s based off of the high heat roasting treatment from this cabbage roll skillet recipe. One of the reviews on that recipe refers to “cabbage crispies,” which is a perfect descriptor! The spice blend that you use on the cabbage and rice/chickpeas mixture is the go-to blend in our home kitchen—savory, tangy, and a bit herbaceous. I like to have a big batch on hand.
We pile up the crispy cabbage on a fluffy, well-seasoned rice and chickpeas mixture. I use onion, spices, and garlic to flavour the jasmine rice and canned chickpea combo. It’s simple to throw together and only takes about 25 minutes to simmer on the stove—similar to my one-pot rice and veggies with dilly tahini.
How this vegan rice and chickpeas dinner comes together:
- Stir up the spice blend
- Roast the chopped cabbage with the spice blend, olive oil, salt, and pepper.
- While the cabbage is roasting, make the rice and chickpeas mixture in a deep skillet.
- While you’re waiting for both components to finish, shake up the sweet mustard dressing in a jar.
- Combine everything and enjoy!
The sweet mustard dressing is a beautiful compliment. There’s just something about cabbage and mustard together! The sweetness in the dressing plays off of the caramelized cabbage edges as well. I truly can’t do a rice-based meal without some type of sauce/saucy mixture! This one is taken directly from my kale cabbage salad recipe. We meal prep this dressing often, and that’s how I came up with this combination that I’m sharing today.
Hope you love this extremely glam and luxurious rice, chickpeas, and cabbage : )
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Spiced Chickpeas & Rice with Roasted Crispy Cabbage & Sweet Mustard Dressing
A simple dinner with lots of help from pantry ingredients? That’s my spiced chickpeas and rice with roasted crispy cabbage and sweet mustard dressing. Super flavorful, hearty, and warming. Cooks up in 40 minutes!
Servings 4
Ingredients
Spice Blend
- 2 teaspoons garlic powder
- 2 teaspoons onion powder
- 2 teaspoons paprika
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 1 teaspoon sumac
Rice, Chickpeas & Cabbage
- 3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- 1 small head green cabbage, cored and chopped (about 6-7 cups chopped cabbage)
- Spice Blend, divided
- sea salt and ground black pepper, to taste
- 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 cup jasmine rice
- 1 19-oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- 3 cups vegetable stock, plus extra
- ⅓ cup chopped fresh parsley, optional
- ⅓ cup toasted sliced almonds, optional
Sweet Mustard Dressing (makes extra)
- ⅓ cup olive oil
- 2 tablespoons vegan mayonnaise
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- 1 tablespoon yellow mustard
- 1 tablespoon grainy mustard
- 1 teaspoon vegan Worcestershire sauce
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- 1 clove garlic, finely minced with a Microplane
- sea salt and ground black pepper, to taste
Notes
- I know that this looks like a ton of ingredients and steps, but the spice blend and dressing should truly come together in 10 minutes. The dressing can even be made up to 5 days in advance!
- Any type of canned bean that you like/have on hand will sub in fine here.
- I have to insist on white jasmine rice though. It just cooks up so well in pilaf-like mixtures like this—and quickly too!
Instructions
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Make the spice blend. In a small bowl, stir together the garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, dried basil, and sumac.
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Preheat the oven to 425°F.
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Place the chopped cabbage on a large baking sheet. Drizzle the cabbage with 2 tablespoons of the olive oil, sprinkle half of the spice blend, and some salt and pepper. Toss to evenly coat. Roast in the oven until tender and browning on the edges. Start checking on the cabbage at the 15-minute point and give it a flip and toss. In my oven, it takes up to 40 minutes, but for some it could be done in as little as 20 minutes.
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While cabbage is roasting, start the rice and chickpeas. Heat a large, deep skillet (or braiser) over medium heat. Pour in the remaining tablespoon of olive oil. Add the onions and sauté until soft, about 7-8 minutes. Add the garlic and remaining spice blend and stir for about 1 minute.
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Add the rice and chickpeas and stir. Add the vegetable stock and season with salt and pepper. Bring this mixture up to a boil and then lower the heat to a simmer. Put a lid on top and continue to simmer until the rice is soft and all liquid is absorbed, about 25 minutes. Check on it here and there and give it a stir. If you have to add more stock towards the end, go right ahead.
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While rice is cooking, make the sweet mustard dressing. In a sealable jar, combine the olive oil, vegan mayonnaise, apple cider vinegar, lemon juice, maple syrup, Dijon, yellow mustard, grainy mustard, Worcestershire sauce, garlic powder, onion powder, garlic, salt, and pepper. Seal the lid on top and give it a good shake.
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Once the rice is done, stir in the chopped parsley and fluff up the rice a bit. Top the rice and chickpeas with the crispy roasted cabbage, toasted almonds (if using), and drizzle servings with the sweet mustard dressing.
