Name: Sausage plus Chickpeas (One Pan!)
Yield: 4

Sausage and Chickpeas combines onions, sweet potatoes, broccoli, and sweet bell pepper in an unforgettable Mexican-inspired seasoning blend. This meal is prepared on one sheet pan, requires minimal prep time and even quicker cleanup!

It is satisfying to straightforward, filling, and nutritious one-pan meals; try some of our other favorites next like this One-Pan Italian Sausage and Veggies, One-Pan Jambalaya, or Mini Meatloaf with mashed potatoes and green beans.

Sausage and Chickpeas

During some recent polling on Instagram, we asked if you were more interested in slow cooker/pressure cooker recipes or one-pan recipes. One-pan meals won by a landslide! I couldn’t be more excited about that, because those are a reliable types to create!

There are loads of one-pan meals on this site, and now this tasty Sausage and Chickpeas meal is joining in the fun.

This recipe is straightforward to make, packed with nutritious ingredients, and best of all, it tastes amazing! There is so much flavor in every single bite and the veggies blend together beautifully with the sausage and seasonings.

Ingredients

Sausage. You can use whatever sausage you’d like, but make sure it is smoked (raw sausage won’t cook properly in this recipe). To keep this dish as nutritious as possible, use smoked turkey or chicken sausage. Turkey and chicken sausage have fewer calories and less saturated fat than standard pork or beef sausage, while still maintaining a high protein content. We prefer hardwood smoked turkey sausage in this recipe.
Sweet potato. These roasted sweet potatoes are one of the most popular recipes on the site, and now they can be enjoyed in this meal! It is worth skipping tan or purple-skinned sweet potatoes (known as the “dry” varieties) and sticking with orange or red-skinned ones. This variety (known as “moist” varieties) is sweeter and has a creamier texture (our favorites are either Red Garnet or Jewel.)
Chickpeas. Also called garbanzo beans — these are both the same! The chickpeas add additional protein to this meal which ensures it’s more satiating. You can cook chickpeas from scratch, but for speed and convenience, we used the canned version.
Broccoli. It is worth using fresh broccoli when roasting. Frozen broccoli never gets quite as crisp and flavorful as fresh broccoli and will water down the other veggies.
Yellow onion. home cooks enjoy the longer strips of onion (satisfying if you love onions because they get beautifully caramelized, yet straightforward to pick out if you don’t!) If you’d prefer, you can cut the onion in 1-inch chunks instead.
Olive oil. You may be tempted to reduce the amount of olive oil, but it’s great insurance against burnt veggies and adds an amazing flavor by adding good-for-you fats to this meal.
Seasonings. The seasoning blend is simple while packing a flavor punch! We combine cumin, paprika, chili powder (see “quick tip” below), garlic powder, coriander, and of course salt and pepper.

Quick Tip

Chili and Chilli? Don’t confuse chili powder with chilli powder. Chilli (note the spelling) refers to unadulterated ground chilies and is similar to American cayenne powder. We use American chili powder made by McCormick® which is quite mild.

Process shots-- images of the seasoning mix being prepped; the sweet potatoes and red peppers being added to a tray

Sausage and Chickpeas Process Overview

This recipe is fun because we get hearty veggies that typically take a long time to roast (the onions, sweet potatoes, and bell peppers) while also getting in veggies that don’t take nearly as long (broccoli and chickpeas). The secret? Staggering the cook times. It actually makes everything go quicker because while the first half of this dinner is roasting, you have time to prepare the rest of it!

Below is a quick overview of how to make One-Pan Sausage and Chickpeas. There is also a quick (under 1 minute) video on this post if you’d prefer to watch it!

Start by tossing together the seasoning mix. While the oven is getting nice and hot, quickly stir together the seasonings. The seasoning blend is made once and used twice in this dish!
Once the seasoning is prepped, chop the sweet potatoes, onion, and sweet bell pepper. Add both to the pan with some olive oil and half the seasonings. Roast.
While that cooks, thinly slice the sausage, coarsely chop the broccoli, and drain and rinse the chickpeas.
Let the veggies roast, and then push the sweet potatoes, onion, and pepper to one side of the sheet pan. We add the sausage, broccoli, chickpeas, some more olive oil, and the rest of the seasoning mix to the other side. Toss it all together and continue roasting. Use this time to prepare a side salad (home cooks enjoy this Costco Kale Salad), or clean up the mess(es?) your toddler made — just me?!
And that’s it! You’ve got your meat, potatoes, veggies, and all deliciously seasoned on one sheet pan and in under an hour of time. Sausage and Chickpeas FTW!

Process shots--adding the onions, peppers and seasonings; continuing to roast.

Sausage and Chickpea Tips

Use a LARGE sheet pan. The more space the vegetables have (aka the less crowded they are) the better they roast. When vegetables are overlapping or crowded onto a sheet pan, they end up steaming instead of roasting. This greatly affects the end taste and texture. We use this 15×21 inch sheet pan and I can’t recommend it enough. You’ll get evenly caramelized roasted veggies every time! See the “quick tip” box below.
Cut vegetables into roughly equal sizes. This ensures even roasting so there aren’t some under-cooked veggies and some overcooked. Pay attention to the specific sizes outlined in the recipe card to ensure the veggies are the right size to roast properly in the indicated times.
Thoroughly dry the chickpeas before roasting. Spices won’t cling well to wet chickpeas, and they’ll end up steaming more than roasting. You can throw the rinsed and drained chickpeas in a salad spinner to thoroughly dry before adding to the sheet pan.
Add fresh herbs. To add brightness to the dish, It is worth adding on some finely chopped cilantro (or use flat-leaf Italian parsley if you aren’t a cilantro fan). A squeeze of lime is also a nice hit of acid and freshness!

Quick Tip

If you aren’t using an extra-large sheet pan, you’ll need to increase the cooking time more than this recipe indicates. When the veggies and sausage have plenty of room to roast, they’ll develop beautiful, caramelized edges and cook faster. Use two sheet pans if needed!

Variation ideas

Sausage and Chickpeas is very forgiving and can easily be customized to fit your personal preferences or needs. Below are some variation options:

Sausage: If you are on the Whole 30 meal plan, there are several types of sausage that fit into the guidelines. To read about what, why, and how of Whole 30 and sausages, read this article!
Veggies: Swap out different veggies for ones you prefer. Cauliflower for broccoli, large brussels sprouts instead of sweet potatoes, red onion as opposed to yellow onion, etc.
Add some heat: If you like a hit of spice, add in some ground cayenne pepper to the seasoning blend. You could also add a pinch of red pepper flakes to individual plates
Don’t love chickpeas? This dish is fine without them! You could also replace them with black beans; just add the black beans (drained, rinsed, and dried) in for the last 2 minutes of roasting.

Overhead image of the pan fresh out of the oven

Serving suggestions

As is. home cooks enjoy this Sausage and Chickpeas meal straight from the oven, as is! Served this way, it makes a great keto/low-carb dish.
Over a grain. We also like to serve Chickpeas and Sausage over a cooked and seasoned grain such as white rice, brown rice or quinoa. To keep this meal super quick and straightforward, we like to use pre-cooked quinoa packets (here are the ones we’ve tried and enjoyed!). These packets heat through in 90 seconds in the microwave and can be divided into bowls after being warmed. If serving this meal with a grain base, you may want to add in some avocado or a creamy element to help tie the two together.
As a taco. I’ve had a few readers try this recipe in taco form! Char some corn or flour tortillas and load this veggie filling into the taco shell with some fresh avocado, freshly grated Cheddar cheese, and sour cream.

Quick Tip

This Sausage and Chickpeas meal is a nice well-rounded all-in-one type of meal (with carbs, fats, and proteins). That said, a nice side dish would be a crunchy fresh salad like this Italian Salad.