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 lol. There’s also a short food-only video at the end of this post :)
Vegan Buffalo Chickpea Quesadillas: Recipe Video
BUFFALO CHICKPEA QUESADILLAS | must-try vegan quesadillas
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 Delish Chickpea Recipes
In the mood for more Mexican recipes that are not 100% authentic but are 100% delicious? Give these a try:
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 :)
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.
Notes
This was a total home run! Even my husband, who is generally skeptical of plant-based cheese (and sauces), said it was delicious and had leftovers the next day. I scaled back on the hot sauce to one tablespoon but no flavor was sacrificed. I honestly can’t wait to make this again!
So great to hear, Lisa! Happy you love the recipe :)
I tried this recipe today for family dinner. The recipe was incredibly simple to follow. Thank you for the all detailed instructions and notes, they were very helpful. There are some vegan skeptics in my family. However, even they seemed to really enjoy the quesadillas and asked for seconds.
I followed the recipe exactly, but reduced the amount of hot sauce to accommodate for low spice tolerance. I cooked my own chickpeas instead of using the canned ones. They were a bit hard to mash using a potato masher, even though they were cooked completely. I blitzed them in the mixer for just a few seconds and the texture was wonderful. Really enjoyed preparing this meal, and eating it! Will definitely be making this again.
That’s so great to hear, Smrithi! Thanks for sharing your experience! Next time, would you mind leaving a rating alongside your review? Star ratings are big help to readers who are thinking of making the recipe. Thanks!
Sooooo good, thank you for sharing this recipe!
So happy you loved it, Sharon!
These are a huge hit at my house! I add a loose cup of very very finely shredded kale to the chickpea mixture to sneak some veg in there and it turns out great!
That sounds like a great idea, Gabrielle! We love sneaking veggies in wherever we can :) Thanks for sharing!
This was the first recipe I tried on rainbow plant life. It was delicious! I will be adding this to my list of regularly made recipes.
So glad you loved it, Therese!
Oh my. This is amazing!!!!
These are delicious! The cheese sauce is amazing! I plan on using the leftover cheese sauce for some cheese fries!
Sounds like a tasty idea, Abbigale! So glad to hear you loved the cheese sauce.
Great idea!!
These were delicious!!! Even my picky, meat-eater husband loved them!!!
And the cheese sauce is divine!!! I always double the recipe when I make it!!!
Thank you and that’s great to hear, Allison! What else do you eat the cheese sauce on?
Thank you so much for sharing all these amazing delicious recipes! But one thing I am dying to know and figure out a workaround for, because it’s really preventing me from being able to fully embrace certain recipes, is I have a severe allergy to cashews, peanuts and pistachios!! So where a huge majority of vegan recipes seem so heavily reliant on the use of cashews, is there anything else I can adequately use in its place? Would blanched almonds work for example?
Maybe a thick coconut yogurt or some coconut cream?
Hi Malika, raw almonds would probably the best substitute in this case! Let us know how it goes if you make it using almonds!
Silken tofu!
Can I skip the vegan yogurt and do extra vegan butter, or another substitute?
Thank you! so excited to try this :)
Hey Kylie,
I can’t find plain coconut yogurt anywhere where I live (in the sticks of Texas), so I use coconut oil instead.
I love this recipe!
I was wondering how long the filling/cheese sauce will last in the fridge?
Will Sriracha work as a hot sauce substitute?
Hi Melita, you’re welcome to use any hot sauce of choice in this recipe, but you definitely will not taste the “buffalo” portion of this recipe if you use Sriracha. Sriracha is also significantly spicier, so if you’re sensitive to heat I would use a smaller amount of it. If you try using Sriracha please let us know how it goes!
Hi
Can I freeze the cheese sauce?
Thanks so much for this recipe. LOVE IT!!
I would also like to know how well the sauce freezes.
Hi Vallie, this cheese sauce freezes well on its own, but make sure to store it in an airtight container. After defrosting, place it in the blender with a little extra plant milk or vegetable broth to help thin it out and get rid of any excess chunks. Hope that helped!
Thank you! The sauce is wonderful! There are so many different ways to enjoy it.
Hi Jo, this cheese sauce freezes well on its own, but make sure to store it in an airtight container. After defrosting, place it in the blender with a little extra plant milk or vegetable broth to help thin it out and get rid of any excess chunks. So glad you love this recipe and I hope that helped!
I really love this recipe. I have made it twice now and can’t get enough of it. I am live on my own, so the recipe is BIG but gives me plenty of leftovers. The other night when I made it, I didn’t turn up the spice enough, but it was still good.
Just made these for the first time. AMAZING.
OMG i just want to eat them all!!
Hi, what is the volume of the vegan buffalo sauce if I were to just sub it for store-bought buffalo sauce?
These are SO good I make them once a week. I also use the nacho sauce on everything. Thank you for yet another amazing recipe Nisha!
Awesome, Kellie. Thanks for your comment and for taking the time to review!
These were amazing! Next time I’ll double or triple the batch. Would be a great make ahead dish, too. Just do the final step of toasting in the skillet when ready to eat.
Thanks for sharing, Delnora!
This recipe absolutely hit it out of the ballpark!!😍 It was so unbelievably good, easy to make and something all the quesadilla enthusiasts in my family LOVED!
Yay, Dhivya! That’s so lovely to hear.