Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. I may earn a small commission for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial, and/or link to any products or services from this website.
This dump-and-bake Chickpea & Rice Casserole is easy AND delicious! Made from only 10 plant-based ingredients, it delivers big flavor with minimal effort.
Dump and bake casseroles have pretty much become a staple for From My Bowl. I love to make them almost as much as you love to eat them!
But really though – what’s not to love about throwing everything in a casserole dish, covering it, and then baking it in the oven?! You get maximum flavor with minimal prep-time, hands-on time, and kitchen cleanup.
INGREDIENTS FOR CHICKPEA RICE CASSEROLE
This casserole is made from only 10 plant-based ingredients that you probably already have in your pantry! Here are some of the key components:
- White Rice: for fragrant flavor and fluffiness, I’d recommend jasmine or basmati rice. White rice has a different cooking time than other grains, so if you’d like to use brown rice please see the recipe notes!
- Chickpeas: for plant-based protein and fiber. If you’re using canned beans, make sure to drain and rinse them first!
- Broth and Coconut Milk: to add flavor and creaminess to our casserole, I found it best to use a combination of vegan chicken-flavored stock and coconut milk.
- Flavorful Veggies: a.k.a. onion, garlic, celery, and mushrooms!
This casserole is essentially a riff off of the classic Chicken & Rice Casserole, which is normally made with chicken, rice, and a few different cans of pre-made soup. The broth, coconut milk, and vegetables combine to replace the soup cans, which aren’t traditionally vegan. Swap the animal protein for some chickpeas and we’re good to go!
HOW TO MAKE CHICKPEA RICE CASSEROLE
- Add the broth, coconut milk, and nutritional yeast to a pot and bring to a boil
- Layer the rice, chickpeas, and vegetables in a casserole dish
- Pour the boiling liquid into the casserole dish, then
- Cover and bake until the rice is fluffy!
Not only is this a totally hands-off cook time, but the rice and chickpeas get infused with extra flavor while everthing bakes away in the oven! Once the rice has cooked for 45 minutes, remove the dish from the oven and let sit for 5 minutes before serving.
I love this Chickpea & Rice Casserole because it’s the perfect comfort food – it’s creamy, cozy, and also packed with veggies. I like to top mine with a little freshly ground black pepper, but it would also be good with some extra dairy-free cheese or maybe even a drizzle of Vegan Ranch.
If you’re looking for more dump-and-bake casserole recipes, you’ll also love this Buffalo Cauliflower Casserole, this Southwestern Black Bean Casserole, and this Cheesy Broccoli Rice Casserole!
Finally, if you make this recipe and decide to share it on Facebook or Instagram, don’t forget to tag me @FromMyBowl + #FromMyBowl! I love seeing your delicious recreations 🙂
PrintVegan Chickpea & Rice Casserole
This dump-and-bake Chickpea & Rice Casserole is easy AND delicious! Made from only 10 plant-based ingredients, it delivers big flavor with minimal effort.
- Prep Time: 10 Minutes
- Cook Time: 45 Minutes
- Total Time: 55 minutes
- Yield: 4 to 6 servings 1x
- Category: Main
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups (350 ml) vegan chicken-flavored stock (or sub vegetable broth)
- 3/4 cup (174 ml) full-fat coconut milk
- 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
- 1 cup (185 g) uncooked white jasmine rice
- 2 cups (400 g) chickpeas, cooked
- ½ yellow onion, diced
- 2–3 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1 rib of celery, finely diced
- 5 oz cremini mushrooms (about 5 medium)
- 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375F and set a 9×13″ or similar pan.
- Add the stock, coconut milk, and nutritional yeast to a medium pot and bring to a boil over high heat. While the liquid heats, add the rice, chickpeas, onion, garlic, celery, and mushrooms to the casserole dish. Mix them around and spread evenly across the bottom of the casserole with a spatula.
- Once the liquid comes to a boil, carefully pour it over the casserole and cover with a layer of parchment paper (optional) followed by a layer of aluminum foil. Place in the middle rack of the oven and bake for 45 minutes.
- Remove the casserole from the oven and let sit for 5 minutes, then uncover. Top with parsley and serve warm; leftovers will last in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Notes
- Brown Rice: if you wish to use brown rice instead of white, preheat the oven to 400F instead and bake for 60 minutes instead of 45. I have not tested this recipe with any other grain substitutions
Keywords: chickpea rice casserole, vegan chicken rice casserole, healthy chicken rice casserole, chickpea casserole, vegan rice casserole
Recipe is delicious—I added 1/2 t salt before baking. At 4 to 6 servings, I just found it to be low on protein for me. Next time I’m thinking of adding some seitan or something, or maybe upping the quantity of chickpeas.
★★★★★
Thank you for the feedback, Kathy! 😀
This was so good! Prior to making my husband was very skeptical that a casserole could offer anything other than bland flavor. Boy did you prove him wrong! So easy to make and so much FLAVOR! Will be making again and again. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe!
★★★★★
Glad you loved it and I’m happy your husband liked it, too! Thank you, Brittney! ♥
I’m excited to try this!
Would it be okay to use a glass pan/casserole?
Maythe
Hi Maythe, you can but you will need to make a few adjustments. The standard advice for baking in glass is to lower the oven temperature by 25°F from what the recipe calls for, and bake up to 10 minutes longer.
It blew my mind how easy/good this was! I sprinkled Spicewalla Garlic Herb Seasoning on the ingredients in the baking pan before pouring the liquid over, and put Lawry’s Seasoning Salt on the finished dish on my plate. This is a new go-to!
★★★★★
Made this tonight and really liked it but was wondering if something could be substituted for the coconut milk? Not a huge fan of the smell of coconut in a savory dish. Otherwise everything else was great!
★★★★
You could use another creamy milk, such as full-fat oat milk or homemade cashew milk
Love the dump and bake recipes!! Made this one for my parents with brown rice and a little more broth and they said it tastes like risotto… we all loved it! Thank you????
★★★★★
Hi Caitlin! Just here to say..what a tasty casserole and oh, what a lovely smell! It was delicious, the combination ingredients and aroma. Definitely I will make it again and highly recommended!
Thank you, stay safe:)
Thanks for stopping by to say that! Thank you!
I forgot to rate..here you are!
★★★★★
YUM!!!! Looks delicious! Do you happen to know the basic nutritional facts? I have to watch my diet.
★★★★★
Hey there! Out of personal philosophy we don’t calculate calories and nutritional info but you can use Cronometer to get that info about pretty much anything!
This is easy and good. It’s also easy to modify to add veggies on hand. We made it mostly as is but I did add some salt to it. I make my own vegetable stock and I never salt it because as it cooks down it would get too salty. I suppose if someone is using store-bought stock that has salt already added they could omit adding any. We also didn’t have cremini mushrooms so just used white mushrooms. Also, we only had lite coconut milk on hand so that is what was used. It would probably be better with the full-fat coconut milk but even the lite still had plenty of fat in it. I used 5 ounces as the recipe states but should have put in the whole 8 oz pack. We’ll make this again and it’s good if short on time or dinner ideas. A simple green salad is a good side.
★★★★★
Thanks for making it and glad you could improvise using what you had on hand!
Absolute perfection! Your recommendation for brown rice was perfect (400 for 1 hr). I will absolutely make this again and can’t wait to try your other casseroles!
★★★★★
Thanks so much for the kind words! Hope you enjoy the other casseroles as well!
So easy and delicious! I substituted artichoke hearts for the mushrooms and added in some peas. This is definitely a new staple for my family.
★★★★★
Love to hear when a recipe becomes a staple! Thanks so much!
I could not be happier with this recipe!! So delicious and truly easy to do! I had never heard of a “dump and bake” casserole like this but I am now so excited about them!! I can’t wait to try your other recipes. Thank you!
★★★★★
So glad you tried it and like it! We have a few other dump and bake recipes as well!
Made this and really enjoyed it. Decided to take the foil off at the end and grill for a bit of extra golden crispiness. So easy and satisfying.
★★★★★
Sounds great! Thanks for making it!
I’m shocked by this recipe! I made it and it tasted great, but the shocking part was my kids even liked it ???? My 5 year old said the chickpeas were his favorite part ????. We’ll definitely make this again! Thanks!!!
★★★★★
Aw that’s so awesome! Thanks so much for sharing, super happy to hear it was a hit!
Absolutely delicious! I added some broccoli that I needed to use up and it was so tasty. I’m loving working my way through your dump and bake dishes. Thanks Caitlin 🙂
★★★★★
Hope you’re enjoying the whole dump and bake series of dishes!
Very easy and yummy! I also made the nut free ranch…soooooo good! Next I’m going to try the buffalo dump and bake casserole. Thanks for creating these great recipes!
★★★★★
Let us know how you like the buffalo one!
I’m a chickpea lover so when looking for a new recipe to try on a weekday night – this one sounded perfect. It was a dump and bake – giving me 30 minutes to work out.
I did a half recipe. Followed recipe, but also added chopped up zucchini and broccoli sprouts. Left out celery since not a fan of cooked celery. Baked for 40 minutes. Rice came out nice and fluffy. The coconut gives it a great creamy taste. I gave it a sprinkle of cashew parmesan. Tasted awesome. Next time I think I will add some freshly grounded pepper prior to pouring the milk mixture on.
Thank you for a delicious meal.
★★★★★
Thanks for making it! Glad you were able to put your own touches on it (and get some work out time in while it was cooking)!
This is really good! I did change it up a little. I used white rice but not jasmine because I’m not a fan of the smell/taste of jasmine rice. Added broccoli and carrots. Used veggie broth. I also just dumped all ingredients in the baking dish and mixed because I’m too lazy to dirty more than one pan. It still turned out really well without adjusting the cook time.
★★★★★
Glad it worked just as well with your modifications!
Hi Caitlin, Love your dump and bake recipes! So far I’ve made the southwestern bake, and the artichoke bake, and both were big hits with my family. I’m planning on making this one next, and I’m wondering if I can use a whole can of coconut milk and then decrease the amount of broth? Would that work? Just wondering if you ever tried it that way. I always like using full cans of coconut milk because I don’t use it for anything else. Thank you!!
Love that you’ve been trying out all the dump and bake recipes! For the coconut milk; do you have a store that sells the smaller cans of the coconut milk? They’re smaller than the traditional can size – 5.46 ounces (161 ml) vs the typical 13.5 ounces (400 ml) large cans. I wouldn’t recommend using too much coconut milk as it could make things a little too rich. But if you’re able to find one of those smaller cans they’re the perfect size, a lot of Asian markets carry them too!
Thanks for the tips! I made the recipe this weekend using the exact amount of coconut milk. It turned out great. And I think you’re right, any more coconut milk than that would have made it too rich. I ended up making chia pudding with the rest of the can of coconut milk, so it did not go to waste and made for a yummy dessert. Thank you again, and keep the dump and bake recipes coming! 🙂
No problem! Coconut milk in desserts is awesome and a great way to use up any leftovers you may end up with! We’re excited about the dump and bake recipes!
I always freeze leftover coconut milk and pull it out for other recipes as needed. I also freeze tomato paste and any other tomato sauces (diced, puree, etc) that don’t call for a whole can. This way nothing goes to waste 😀.
I made this for dinner after watching one of your Youtube videos and it was really good! I’ll definitely make it again! Thank you for this recipe 🙂
Love from Portugal
★★★★★
So happy to hear it! Thank you and hope all is well in Portugal!