These Vegan Buffalo Chickpea Quesadillas are a fan favorite for a reason. Despite being mind blowingly tasty and flavorful, they’re made with mostly pantry ingredients and easy to make. And they’re extremely popular with vegan skeptics, omnivores, and picky kids.
Check out the video on Youtube for a look at how to make these (including the trick to getting crispy, not soggy quesadillas). And some, err, cooking mishaps and awkward outtakes 😉
Vegan Buffalo Chickpea Quesadillas: Recipe Video
These quesadillas were so freakin’ delicious that I’ll never be going back to my simple cheese quesadillas. Sure, they take a little more effort and time than plopping some vegan cheese on a tortilla. But they are SO worth it. And they really don’t take thaaat much effort and time. As long as you’ve got your cashews soaked in advance, you can make these spicy, cheesy quesadillas in a half hour.
Ingredient Rundown
Buffalo Sauce
Hot Sauce: For these quesadillas, I married the oh-so-popular Buffalo flavor that people associate with hot wings with my favorite plant protein (chickpeas). The result is a hearty and delicious mashed chickpea buffalo sauce filling. Then I combine this filling with an irresistible Mexican cheese sauce for a match made in heaven.
I wanted the “buffalo” flavor to be pronounced but not overwhelming, which is often the case in buffalo-flavored foods. I use Frank’s Xtra hot sauce for that traditional, spicy “buffalo” flavor because I like things xtra spicy. If you’re okay with spice but want a slightly more moderate heat, I recommend Frank’s original sauce.
If you can’t find Frank’s hot sauce, you can make your own hot sauce (this is a copycat recipe for Frank’s hot sauce). Or use Cholula, Tabasco, or any hot sauce of your preference. Since the hot sauce gets mixed with (vegan) butter, you’ll want a hot sauce that’s pretty vinegar-y to balance out the butter.
Vegan Butter: Buffalo sauce is typically made with a hot sauce and melted butter. But, obviously, we’re going to be using vegan butter! I’ve made this with Violife plant butter, Country Crock Plant Butter, and Earth Balance vegan butter, all with great results.
PS: Looking for more great buffalo-flavored recipes? Try my Vegan Buffalo Cauliflower bites!
Chickpea Filling
Chickpeas + Aromatics: Once the hot sauce is mixed in with the melted vegan butter and some spices, it gets folded into the mashed chickpea mixture. I rely on canned chickpeas make this recipe a quick, weeknight-friendly meal. And to give them extra flavor, I first sauté an onion and minced garlic in a bit of oil before adding the chickpeas.
PS: If you’re looking for more great quesadilla fillings, these Chipotle copycat Sofritas and Mexican Black Beans are excellent in quesadillas!
Mexican cheese sauce
This is the EASIEST cheese sauce ever, and it really tastes like a Mexican-flavored cheese dip. It features raw cashews, vegan yogurt, salsa, a few spices, and nutritional yeast.
The hardest part of this recipe is remembering to soak your cashews in advance. If you find that you’ve forgotten to soak your cashews overnight, you can soak them in boiling water for 1 hour.
Simply add all the ingredients to a high-powered blender and whiz until creamy. Even if you don’t make these quesadillas, you should definitely add this cheese sauce to your recipe repertoire because it’s insanely good (and healthy!). It’s great with burritos, enchiladas, tacos, and nachos!
Tips for making these quesadillas
For the chickpeas, the recipe calls for one (15-ounce) can of chickpeas because that’s the most convenient amount to use. But if you have extra chickpeas on hand, I like to add about 1 1/2 (15-ounce) cans (about 2 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas). It makes each quesadilla a bit more filling. If you do increase the amount of chickpeas to 1 1/2 cans (2 1/2 cups), you shouldn’t need to make more of the buffalo sauce because the mixture is already so flavorful.
To achieve that perfectly crisp, crunchy texture on the outside of the quesadilla, follow this step. Weigh down the quesadilla with another skillet while it cooks in the pan. After a few minutes, flip the quesadilla and do the same for another minute or two. You’ll be in quesadilla heaven, I promise!
More Mexican-Inspired Comfort Food
More Seriously Good Chickpea Recipes
- Chickpea Curry
- Chickpea Salad Sandwich
- Butternut Squash Chickpea Curry
- Mediterranean Chickpea Salad
I hope you try out these Vegan Buffalo Chickpea Quesadillas! They’re incredibly delicious and I guarantee you will fall in love with them! If you love them, please rate and review them below 🙂
Introducing
Big Vegan Flavor
Techniques and 150 recipes to master vegan cooking.
Vegan Buffalo Chickpea Queasadillas
Ingredients
Mexican Cheese Sauce
- 1 cup (130-140g) raw cashews, soaked overnight (or soaked in boiling water for 1 hour)
- ½ cup (115g) vegan unsweetened plain yogurt (see Note 1)
- 2 tablespoons water or vegetable broth
- ½ cup (115-130g) salsa of choice (see Note 2)
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon chili powder
- ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
Buffalo Chickpea Filling
- ¼ cup (56g) vegan butter (1/2 stick)
- 4 tablespoons Frank’s hot sauce, original cayenne or Xtra hot, or hot sauce of choice (see Note 3)
- ⅛ teaspoon garlic powder
- A pinch of cayenne pepper (optional; I don’t use it when I use Xtra hot sauce)
- A pinch of kosher salt
- 2 teaspoons coconut sugar or brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons olive oil
- 1 medium yellow onion, diced
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 (15-ounce /425g) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed (see Note 4)
- 1 small bunch of scallions (4-5 scallions), white and light green parts only, sliced thinly)
For serving
- 8 large flour tortillas****
Instructions
- Prepare the Mexican Cheese Sauce. Drain the soaked cashews and pat dry. Add the cashews, along with the remaining sauce ingredients, to a high-powered blender. Blend until thick, creamy, and smooth. The sauce should be quite thick and creamy, but if you’d like it to be even thicker, add the sauce to a saucepan over medium-low heat for a few minutes to thicken up slightly.
- Next, make the buffalo sauce. Melt the vegan butter in a heatproof bowl in the microwave (or in a saucepan on the stove). To the melted butter, add the hot sauce, garlic powder, cayenne pepper (if using), salt, and sugar. Whisk until the hot sauce and butter are completely incorporated.
- Pour the drained and rinsed chickpeas in a medium bowl and roughly mash them with a fork or a potato masher, leaving some beans intact.
- Heat the 2 teaspoons oil in a large skillet over medium heat and once the oil is shimmering, add the diced onion. Cook for 4 to 5 minutes or until softened and they have a little color, then add the garlic and cook for an additional 1 minute.
- To the onions, add the buffalo-butter sauce and the mashed chickpeas, and bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the scallions and stir to combine. Turn off the heat and wipe out the skillet so you can reuse it for making the quesadillas.
- Assemble the quesadillas. Spread an even layer of the Mexican Cheese Sauce (1/4-1/3 cup) onto one of the eight tortillas. Arrange about 1/2 cup of the Buffalo Chickpea Filling on top. Place another tortilla on top to cover.
- Lightly grease the large skillet with a bit of oil and place over medium heat. Once hot, add the prepared quesadilla to the skillet. Place a slightly smaller skillet on top of the quesadilla so that it presses down on the quesadilla, resulting in a nice crispy exterior. I also like to weigh the smaller skillet down with a couple cans of beans/tomatoes or just press down on the skillet with my hands (using a kitchen towel so I don't burn myself). Cook the quesadillas for 3 minutes, then flip and cook another 2 to 3 minutes, or until both sides are crispy and nicely browned. Repeat with the remaining sauce, filling, and tortillas.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Love this? Leave a rating below!
I can’t wait to try this. Do you have any recommendations for substitutes for making the chickpea mixture without “butter” and oil?
Hi Stephanie, you can easily swap the oil with water to saute the onions and garlic, provided you have a nonstick skillet. Buffalo sauce is traditionally made with hot sauce and butter, as the fat helps to tame the acidity of the hot sauce. That said, if you can’t use butter or oil, you can omit it, but I can’t guarantee it’ll taste as balanced. Another option is to add the hot sauce to the Mexican cheese sauce instead. That will be more balanced since there’s fat from the cashews and vegan yogurt. And then you can just saute the garlic powder/cayenne/salt/sugar when you add the chickpeas instead of also adding the buffalo sauce. I hope one of these options works out!
How do I make sauce without nuts?
You could sub cooked russet potato for the cashews. I also have a nut-free cheese sauce if you are interested!
https://www.rainbowplantlife.com/blog/nut-free-vegan-cheese-sauce
Hello. I made these and they were so delicious!!! I agree with Jerome…the cheese sauce is life changing! Thank you for this recipe!
Hi Melissa, that’s so nice to hear. I am glad you loved the quesadillas and cheese sauce!
Hello! I am excited to try this; I’m a new vegan and I really appreciate all the great recipes you have! I don’t like chickpeas (I know, sacrilege) so I was thinking of subbing in black beans, but I was wondering if you have any suggestions of what you think would work? I like all beans except chickpeas, for some reason…
Hi Jerome! Welcome to your new vegan lifestyle 🙂 Haha almost sacrilegious, but everyone has different tastes. I think black beans or white beans (e.g., cannellini beans) would work well! That said, the flavors from the buffalo sauce and the cheese sauce are quite bold so you don’t taste anything "chickpea-y" if that make sense 🙂
Thank you for getting back to me so quickly! I made these, and they were awesome!! I did make it with the chickpeas, and it was good, but I think they’d be just as good with black beans. That cheese sauce is life-changing hahaha
My daughter has a bit allergy, is there anything that can be subbed out for the cashews?
Hi Linda, can she have seeds? I think the closest sub would be sunflower seeds. They can turn a bit greenish when you soak/blend them, but the taste and texture should be a good replacement. I find that sometimes they need a bit more oomph flavorwise than cashews, so if needed, add a squeeze of lemon or lime juice. Hope that works out!
These were AMAZING!!! 😋 I’m a new Vegan and my family is going along with my decision and this was a great first step! My husband and kids not just liked these but LOvED them! Thank you so so much for this recipe and all of your helpful posts and videos!
Hi Jessica, I am so happy to hear that! Congrats on your new vegan journey and so amazing you have your family joining you along the way. Thank you for stopping by and I’m so happy you enjoyed the recipe and my posts/videos!
I’ve made these TWICE this week! Once with Franks Red Hot and once with Simple Truth Chipotle Hot Sauce (Kroger) and I have to say I liked it with the chipotle sauce more! Omitted the onions/oil/sugar and made half the cheese mixture and it turned out perfect!
Hi Courtney, woohoo, twice in one week! That is a good sign 🙂 So great to hear that they are super tasty with chipotle sauce – I will have to try that soon. Thanks for the tip!
I made these last night and they turned out fantastic. I used a buffalo wing sauce and added some Tapatio sauce in the chickpea mix while it was simmering. Delicious! I just wish I’d made a bigger batch of filling! 🙂
Hi Carissa, thank you for the lovely feedback! I will have to try it next time with some Tapatio sauce as well!
Super good and easy! Love them
Thank you, Linda! So nice to hear that you enjoyed them!
This was delicious, and simple enough. I made the cheese sauce a day ahead because I had more time than I did this evening. We typed then with avocado and extra salsa. My one complaint though, is that there’s no way it’s enough chickpea mixture for 8 tortillas (4 quesadillas), it’s only going to be 2. There will be plenty of cheese sauce leftover though, so I’ll probably just make a second batch of the chickpea filling.