Ethiopian Berbere Chickpea Pizza Recipe with Tahini Garlic Dressing. Amazingly flavorful pizza. Dress with tahini dressing, vegan ranch or other creamy dressing. Vegan Soyfree Nut-free Recipe. Gluten-free Crust option. Jump to Recipe
Do we need more chickpeas on pizza recipes, yes of course! This pizza is more like a flatbread with an olive oil glaze, tomatoes and onions, a generous layer of chickpeas tossed in Ethiopian berbere spice blend. Once baked, it is finished with a tahini dressing, or other creamy dressing or use lemon juice.
The crust is my 20 minute crust. It is a simple crust where the flour, water, yeast is mixed up to a loosely formed soft dough, no kneading necessary. Let it sit for 5-10 mins, shape, add layers. See Crust video on this post. For the pictured crust, Iused half whole wheat and half white flour.
I work in parallel for the pizza so the crust sitting close to the heating oven gets plenty rise time while I prep the layers and add them. The chickpeas are tossed with berbere spice, salt, garlic. The veggies sliced thin. The dressing can be made from scratch or use vegan mozzarella shreds or vegan ranch. Bake and done. For variations, use other beans or lentils or a mix of chickpeas and veggies such as zucchini, mushrooms, or partially cooked cauliflower.
Berbere ideally is a paste made by simmering the whole spices with onion and garlic, then blended and used. I use a dry spice mix for this recipe (see from scratch recipe below). Use premade berbere or use other spice blends like Shawarma or Garam masala as both pair well with creamy tahini based dressing. You can easily make this baked on a large tortilla for a tortilla pizza or roll up into a wrap. Cook the spiced chickpeas on stove top or bake until crisp and use with veggies, lettuce, tahini dressing.
Make this and let me know in the comments how it turned out! I love hearing from you. Do post pictures and tag me on instagram or post on my facebook page.
More pizzas from the blog
- Simple Veggie Pizza with 20 minute Crust with garlicky olive oil and no cheese.
- Pizza with chipotle red lentil tomato sauce and vegan ricotta , this pizza sauce also is amazing as pasta sauce
- Sriracha BBQ Tofu Pizza with almond milk pepperjack because Sriracha!
- Deep dish Black eyed pea Pizza
- Buffalo Chickpea Pizza with celery ranch dressing. Looks time intensive but really isnt.
My first book has close to a 100 pictures for 150 recipes (after a lot of back and forth with Publisher for wanting more). You can find the rest of the photos here. All the recipes that dont have photos, covered on this post!
Back to this pizza. Shape the dough. Brush olive oil.
Layer tomatoes, bebere spiced chickpeas
Add onions, some of the tahini dressing.
Bake.
Garnish with cilantro and more tahini dressing or other creamy dressing. Slice and Serve. This is a strong flavored pizza, which you an taste test as you go before baking. Adjust the spices in the chickpeas before spreading and baking.
Recipe Card
Ethiopian Berbere Chickpea Pizza Recipe with Tahini Garlic Dressing
Ingredients
Berbere spice blend:
- 1/2 tsp (0.5 tsp) ground coriander
- 1 to 1.5 tsp paprika I use a combination of sweet and smoky
- 1/3 tsp (0.33 tsp) ground cumin
- 1/8 tsp (0.13 tsp) fenugreek seed powder or ground mustard
- 1/4 tsp (0.25 tsp) black pepper
- 1/4 to 1/3 tsp cardamom
- a generous pinch of clove powder ginger powder, all spice, cinnamon and cayenne
Pizza
- 1 recipe Easy Pizza Crust
- Or Any of my Glutenfree Crust
- 15 oz (425.24 g) can Chickpeas washed and drained or about 1.5 cups cooked
- 1/4 tsp (0.25 tsp) 1/2 tsp salt depending on if the chickpeas were salted
- 1/4 tsp (0.25 tsp) onion powder
- 1/4 tsp (0.25 tsp) garlic powder
- 1 tsp oil
- Sliced tomatoes
- Sliced onion
- 1 recipe Tahini garlic dressing
- Or my Tahini dill sauce
- cilantro or parsley
Instructions
- Mix the berbere spice mix really well. Preferably also add 1/8 tsp ground ajwain(carom seeds) and ground kalongi (nigella seeds). I know lots of spices :).
- Drain the chickpeas and transfer to a bowl. Add to the bowl, all of the berbere spice blend or 1 to 1.5 tbsp pre made blend. You can also use 1 to 1.5 tbsp pre made shawarma blend or garam masala
- Add garlic, onion, salt and olive oil to the chickpeas and toss well to coat. set aside. Make the tahini sauce, thin it out to preference.
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F / 220ºc. Shape the pizza crust. Spread the crust to about 14 inch size to make a thin crust large pizza. Brush with olive oil. Place sliced tomatoes on top. Add the spiced chickpeas in a single layer. (You can also add some greens or pepper as toppings).
- Place sliced onions on top. Drizzle some of the tahini garlic sauce. Bake for 18 minutes.
- Garnish with cilantro or parsley. Drizzle some more tahini sauce, slice and serve. You can also use vegan ranch, vegan mozzarella (add before baking) or other creamy dressing or just lemon juice to dress.
Notes
Nutrition
Melissa
Amazing! I made English muffin pizzas using this recipe. Will definitely be making it again! Thanks!
Vegan Richa Support
yummy! 🍕
Emma
Delicious! Thank you for this recipe!
Vegan Richa Support
Awesome!! Do leave a rating too!
El
This was soo good. Some of the chickpeas rolled off while eating so I am thinking of doing a light chop so they stay put. Because they have the spices on them, if they hit your clothes they could get stained. Super yummy. I am very impressed with your creativity and palate in creating all this great vegan food.
Vegan Richa Support
Sounds like you have really fine discerning pallet!
I’m couldn’t be more pleased that you are pleased 😆
Jodie McDonald
Uncommon flavours that are really delicious on pizza. Thankyou. I cook this regularly now. Wondering if I can make big batch of tahini garlic dressing and leave in the fridge?
Vegan Richa Support
Excellent , yes , you could for up to a week or two
Sheila
Wow. This is incredible. As I was assembling it, I was thinking, “Oh, no … this seems like too much spice.” But it’s not. It is perfect. So delicious! I didn’t have fresh tomatoes, so I had to substitute a can of stewed tomatoes, which are not something I enjoy. However, I rinsed the stewed tomatoes, put them in a strainer, then sliced them a bit to line the pizza. Everything else, I followed exactly. You are an amazing cook! I’m not quite vegan, almost, but as a vegetarian, I didn’t miss the cheese. I will be making this again. Thanks again for sharing.
Vegan Richa Support
that’s all great to hear
MoM
Don’t spread the sauce until after you slice it. Very messy.
Murray Kirch
This pizza was amazing – everyone loved it. I used Penzey’s Berbere spice blend. When serving I added pomegranate arils and a light drizzle of pomegranate molasses since I had both on hand.
Thank you.
Ana machado
Delicious. My family’s favourite.
Vegan Richa Support
Awesome! Thanks for the great review!
Ana machado
Absolutely delicious. Genius.😀
Rebecca I Strauss
Made this tonight – delicious! I used Trader Joe’s crust and caramelized shallots instead of the raw onions, and also added a ton of fresh dill to the tahini dill sauce. This one’s going in the permanent rotation.
Richa
yay
Heloisa
How is this pizza gluten free? Did you make the crust, which for me is the most important thing on a vegan pizza. There is no recipe for the crust for this pizza with chickpeas. Did I miss something?
Richa
hmm i had added thelink. seems like the widget update ate it up. Here are the gf crust options on the blog https://www.veganricha.com/?s=gluten+free+crust
there is a search box on top right that you can use as well.
Michelle
Made this last night for me and my fiance. We devoured the whole thing. The flavor combination was so oooo good!
Richa
yay!
Dee
Which tahini dressing recipe did you use for this?
Richa
oh darn the links disappeared, prob with some widget update. Here https://www.veganricha.com/2017/01/turmeric-lentil-fritters-tomato-bowl-tahini-dill-sauce.html , also added links on the widget again
Wim
Can you make more pizza recipes with tahini? I really like this pizza. And my non-vegan brother also liked it 🙂
Richa
thats awesome!! You can put my cauliflower shawarma on the pizza too and dress with the tahini dressing before serving.
Wim
Thanks for your reply. Pizza with cauliflower shawarma sounds great 🙂 And I like your recipes so much, that I have ordered both of your books 🙂
Richa
thats awesome! Thank you!
Marilyne
WOW! (I think that sums it up)
Emily
Made this the other night. It was so flavorful! I think I will saute the chickpeas and make wraps to carry for lunch.
Richa
Awesome! wraps sound like a perfect meal.
Loretta Morandin
Made this Pizza last night. It’s a Five Star affair! We all enjoyed it immensely.
I used white spelt flour and wholemeal wheat for the crust. Just had the leftovers for lunch (I made double batch) and it tasted even better! Easy crust, New go-to tahini dressing recipe and ab fab pizza combo. (I have to admit I’ve made berbere and Ethiopian food before and already knew I liked it so I was immediately drawn to this recipe).
Richa
Awesome!!
debbie
Made this Friday and it was killer! I used your crust recipe which is so wonderfully fast and has revolutionized my pizza nights. Made this exactly as written and loved it so much. Thanks!!
Richa
Awesome! yes that crust is my go to crust.
Anne-Julie Caron
Do you use instant yeast or traditional yeast?
Anne-Julie Caron
The smaller or bigger granules? Because my dough didn’t rise….Thanks!
Richa
I use active yeast small granules, but instant should work too. If the dough did not rise, then the yeast either died (water was too hot), or salt was added directly to the yeast mixture or the yeast was old. Did the yeast get frothy when you mixed it with warm water and 1 tbsp flour?
Sarah | Well and Full
You are the queen of Vegan Pizzas, Richa!! This look absolutely fabulous 🙂
Richa
Thanks Sarah!