A fun twist on Kung Pao Chicken, but no meat! Chickpeas take over this meal and make a fabulous high fiber and high protein Asian inspired meal.
WW My Way Smart Points: 9 Green, 6 Blue, 2 Purple
WW Freestyle Smart Points:6
Getting Stuff Ready
To start I opened two 15oz cans of Chickpeas (Garbanzo Beans) - this was a debate in our house and after consulting google, we concluded they are in fact the same thing! I threw them into a strainer and rinsed them really well. Similar to black bean, you have to rinse them to get that furry stuff off. Once nice and furless, I dumped them into the crockpot. I cut up a red onion and a giant red bell pepper, if you don't have massive red peppers like the store had, I would use two normal sized ones. I diced both of those up and added them to the crockpot with the chick peas.
Making the Sauce
In a small bowl, any regular cereal bowl will do, pour in the gluten free soy sauce. If you don't have to be gluten free you can use your favorite soy sauce. Then I added in the maple syrup, I used a lite kind, but you use such a small amount, 2 Tbsp, that i would think any kind wouldn't change the point outcome. Then I added in the balsamic vinegar, garlic powder, ginger, red pepper flakes, and sesame oil and mixed it all together with the soy sauce and syrup.
Once mixed, I poured the sauce over the veggies, and stirred it up really well and set it on low for about 6 hours.
To Finish it All Off
About 40 minutes before we were ready to eat, I cooked up some brown rice for serving. Once the rice was cooked, 35-40 minutes, It was time to serve! We each took a heap of rice, and then covered it with the kung pao chickpeas! More red pepper flakes can be added to taste if you prefer extra heat, but I thought the heat level was just right.
recipe
Recipe Adapted from Detoxinista