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High Protein Spicy Chickpea Meal Prep Bowl (Vegetarian)

These spicy chickpea meal prep bowls take just 20 minutes to make and they are perfect for lunch or quick dinner. The dish is vegetarian and it’s a great source of fiber, fats, and protein.

The meal prep bowl contains chickpeas, avocado, mature cheddar, bell peppers, and loads of chopped parsley.

spicy chickpea recipe

Why Meal Prep?

Nowadays, with our busy lifestyles eating healthy can be very challenging. That’s mostly because you cannot just go to a cafeteria for high protein lunch and get your favorite healthy meals just like that.

My problem these days is finding healthy food in restaurants. With how popular fast food is, it’s not that easy to go to a restaurant and have a delicious meal that’s also nutritious.

Even if you were to go and have lunch and dinner at restaurants all the time, you’d spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars every month. That’s not how you save money.

So, if you’re a working person like me who wants to eat healthily, maintain a healthy lifestyle or even lose weight, meal prepping is essential.

This dish is one of the meal prep bowl recipes that I’m sharing on my Youtube channel. Feel free to check the video out here.

Spicy Chickpea: How Spicy?

chickpea meal prep bowl

While the recipe is called spicy for a reason, you can truly control the level of spiciness. You can always increase or decrease the amount of chilli powder you‘re using.

With the amount of chili powder I‘m using here, the dish isn‘t extremely spicy. It‘s more like it has hints of it, which is perfect for the occasion.

Spicy Chickpea Bowls are Filling

The meal prep bowl is very filling even though it‘s vegetarian. That‘s mostly because chickpeas are actually a good source of protein.

They are high in carbs but around 30% of them are dietary fiber. Fiber is essentially food for your gut bacteria, it‘s very important for healthy digestion and it can overall improve your well-being.

The cheddar is another reason why this meal prep bowl is so filling. It‘s full of fats and protein. Also, it just goes so well with the chickpeas because they‘re naturally much sweeter.

Thus, the more mature the cheddar, the more you might enjoy the chickpeas. The contrast always makes you appreciate each ingredient more.

Reheating Chickpea Meal Prep Bowls

spicy chickpea meal prep bowls

The great thing about this dish is that it tastes amazing when it’s cold. Thus, you don’t really have to heat it up to enjoy it.

In fact, I prefer it cold. However, if you want to warm the dish up, I highly suggest only warming up the chickpeas.

Otherwise, the cheese will melt and the dish just won’t be the same. You can also just throw the chickpeas into a frying pan.

As little as a minute of heating the chickpeas up will do the job. They’ll get a little crispier and even more delicious.

Otherwise, if you don’t want to warm it up, don’t. It’s a perfect high protein meal prep bowl in that sense. You can just bring it to work and eat it for lunch outside.

Also, it’s just a great choice if your workplace doesn’t have a microwave. Instead of eating sugary snacks, you might as well eat a bowl of deliciousness!

Recommended: Low Carb Chicken Fajita Meal Prep

Watch Full Instructions

What You’ll Need for Meal Prep Bowls

Glass Containers – while glass containers are heavier they tend to keep food fresher for longer. So, definitely recommend using glass containers if you can.

Glass Containers with Compartments – glass containers with compartments are useful when you want to reheat only a few ingredients but not the whole meal prep bowl. It nicely separates different parts of the dish.

BPA-Free Plastic Containers – let’s be honest, using glass containers is useful but they are so heavy. If you constantly bring them to work, it might make more sense to just use plastic containers. Make sure the ones you get are BPA-free so you can easily use them to reheat the food without the fear that all the toxins will get into it.

Mason Jars – while I’m not using mason jars in this recipe, you could totally layer all the ingredients and have fun with it. Since the dish doesn’t require reheating, it can make it much easier to bring it to work.

Mason jars tend to make any meal prep look impressive. Also, if you’re using the vertical space, it might help you to store more food in the fridge with them.

Other Recipes You Might Like

chickpea meal prep bowl

Spicy Chickpea Meal Prep Bowl

Yield: 2 meal prep bowls
Prep Time: 7 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 17 minutes

A quick high protein vegetarian meal prep recipe for those who love spicy food. This high protein meal prep bowl is full of fiber, and fats making for a filling lunch or dinner meal.

Ingredients

Chickpeas

  • 2 cans chickpeas
  • 4 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 1/2 onion, (finely chopped)
  • 3 garlic cloves, (crushed)
  • 2 tsp lemon juice, (fresh)
  • 1 cup parsley, (chopped)

Other

  • 1 large ripe avocado
  • 1/2 cup mature cheddar, (shredded)
  • 1 red bell pepper
  • chopped parsley

Spices

  • 5 tsp chilli powder
  • 2 tsp coriander leaf
  • 2 tsp paprika
  • 2 tsp cumin powder
  • dash of salt

Instructions

  1. Mix all the spices and set aside.
  2. Heat the oil over medium heat, add onions, garlic and stir fry until translucent. Afterward, add the chickpeas and the mixture of spices.
  3. Cook for around 7-10 minutes until chickpeas get beautifully toasted. Afterward, stir in the parsley and lemon juice.
  4. Slice a large avocado and sweet red pepper. Add the chickpeas to food containers and cover with parsley.
  5. Finally, add cheese, avocado slices, and paprika slices. Feel free to squeeze some lemon juice on avocado so it stays fresh for longer.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 2 meal prep bowls Serving Size: 1 meal prep bowl
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 736Total Fat: 32gCarbohydrates: 89gFiber: 24gProtein: 30g

How much did you LOVE this recipe?

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Conclusion

Let me know what you think about these spicy chickpeas. Would you like to see more nutritious vegetarian options out there, especially when it comes to meal prepping?

Did you find it filling enough? Or perhaps you‘d add an ingredient or two to fill you up even more?

If you did enjoy the recipe, share it with your friends, and save it on Pinterest. Eating healthy doesn‘t have to be hard and you don‘t have to spend loads of time cooking.

Sharing is caring, so please show some love! Have a good day!

Wendi

Thursday 30th of December 2021

Is there anything you can sub the avocado out with? This sounds great but I hate avocado.

Karo @ AllNutritious

Saturday 1st of January 2022

You can skip it all together or have hummus instead

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