Baked Feta with Tomatoes and Chickpeas
A twist on the viral TikTok hit, with chickpeas instead of pasta. Super easy to prepare and in half an hour you have a great meal out of the oven.
Recipe Categories:
Soft feta turns irresistibly creamy as it bakes into bubbling tomato sauce, nestled alongside chickpeas for extra heartiness. This twist on the TikTok-famous baked feta moves away from pasta, leaning instead into plant protein and pantry staples for a dish that’s both satisfying and climate-conscious.
Baked feta with tomatoes is rooted in Mediterranean cooking, and was popularized worldwide by Jenni Häyrinen’s viral recipe. This version takes inspiration from Smitten Kitchen’s adaptation, swapping in chickpeas for extra fiber and protein without extra emissions from pasta or meat. I use canned tomatoes to keep things weeknight-friendly, but if it’s summer and tomatoes are in season, you can substitute with 600g fresh cherry or grape tomatoes — no need to cut them; they’ll burst and soften in the oven.
The olive oil here isn’t primarily for preventing sticking; it carries aromatics and helps coax more flavor from the spices and tomatoes. Feel free to experiment: dried oregano is classic, or try stirring in sautéed onions, or swapping chickpeas for cooked orzo if that’s what you have on hand. Don’t have fresh parsley? Use coriander or another tender leafy herb, or skip the garnish if necessary.
Serve straight from the oven with crusty sourdough or a baguette to mop up the sauce. If you want to further lower the recipe’s carbon impact, choose a feta made from cow’s milk — or even try with seasoned tofu for a plant-based variation.
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Recipe
Baked feta with tomatoes and chickpeas
Photo by: Max Alletsee
Ingredients
Preparation Time: 5 min
Total Time: 35 min
Servings: 2
- • 250g feta cheese
- • 40g olive oil
- • 4 cloves garlic
- • 600g canned tomatoes (canned tomatoes, about 1.5 standard cans)
- • 1 pinch chili powder
- • 1 pinch salt
- • 1 pinch pepper
- • 250g tinned chickpeas (about 100–125g dried chickpeas)
- • 10g fresh parsley
Ingredients
Servings: 2
Preparation Time: 5 min
Total Time: 35 min
- • 250g feta cheese
- • 40g olive oil
- • 4 cloves garlic
- • 600g canned tomatoes (canned tomatoes, about 1.5 standard cans)
- • 1 pinch chili powder
- • 1 pinch salt
- • 1 pinch pepper
- • 250g tinned chickpeas (about 100–125g dried chickpeas)
- • 10g fresh parsley
Instructions
- 1 Preheat the oven to 200°C.
- 2 Place the feta cheese in the centre of an ovenproof dish. Drizzle the olive oil over the feta and around the dish. Peel the garlic cloves, chop them finely, and scatter over the feta and tomatoes.
- 3 Pour the canned tomatoes into the dish, making sure to cover the feta. If there isn’t enough liquid to partially submerge the cheese, rinse out the empty can with a splash of water and add that to the dish.
- 4 Season with chili powder, salt, and pepper. Stir the tomatoes gently around the edges, leaving the feta whole in the centre.
- 5 Bake in the oven for 15 minutes at 200°C, until the feta starts to soften and the sauce is bubbling.
- 6 Remove the dish from the oven. Add the drained chickpeas and gently fold them into the tomato sauce. Return the dish to the oven and bake for another 15 minutes, until the feta is creamy and everything is heated through.
- 7 While the dish finishes baking, wash and chop the parsley. Once baking is complete, sprinkle the parsley over the top and serve immediately.
Carbon Footprint
Carbon Footprint: 3566 g CO₂e
This ranks it number 55 out of 59 recipes published on the blog so far in terms of estimated carbon footprint.
In other words, it is one of the five recipes with the worst carbon footprint. 😱
Looking at the individual ingredients in this recipe, the feta cheese stands out: It accounts for around half of the recipe's total carbon footprint, even though it only makes up around a fifth of the ingredients by weight. Of course, animal farming and the resulting emissions play a role here: on average, it takes about 10 liters of fresh milk to make 1 kg of cheese (source). Feta is an important flavor component, so I wouldn't leave it out despite its carbon footprint.
Comparison of Ingredients
| Ingredients | Carbon footprint per kg | Carbon footprint for recipe | % of ingredients | % of CO₂ emissions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feta | 7.0 | 1750 | 21% | 49% |
| olive oil | 3.2 | 128 | 3% | 4% |
| garlic | 0.5 | 5 | 1% | 0% |
| canned tomatoes | 1.8 | 1080 | 52% | 30% |
| chili powder | 1.1 | 1 | 0% | 0% |
| salt | 1.1 | 1 | 0% | 0% |
| pepper | 1.1 | 1 | 0% | 0% |
| chickpeas | 1.3 | 325 | 21% | 9% |
| parsley | 1.1 | 11 | 1% | 0% |
| Bake: 30 min | 263 | 7% |
Instructions
- 1 Preheat the oven to 200°C.
- 2 Place the feta cheese in the centre of an ovenproof dish. Drizzle the olive oil over the feta and around the dish. Peel the garlic cloves, chop them finely, and scatter over the feta and tomatoes.
- 3 Pour the canned tomatoes into the dish, making sure to cover the feta. If there isn’t enough liquid to partially submerge the cheese, rinse out the empty can with a splash of water and add that to the dish.
- 4 Season with chili powder, salt, and pepper. Stir the tomatoes gently around the edges, leaving the feta whole in the centre.
- 5 Bake in the oven for 15 minutes at 200°C, until the feta starts to soften and the sauce is bubbling.
- 6 Remove the dish from the oven. Add the drained chickpeas and gently fold them into the tomato sauce. Return the dish to the oven and bake for another 15 minutes, until the feta is creamy and everything is heated through.
- 7 While the dish finishes baking, wash and chop the parsley. Once baking is complete, sprinkle the parsley over the top and serve immediately.
Carbon Footprint
Carbon Footprint (2 portions): 3566 g CO₂e
This ranks it number 55 out of 59 recipes published on the blog so far in terms of estimated carbon footprint.
In other words, it is one of the five recipes with the worst carbon footprint. 😱
Looking at the individual ingredients in this recipe, the feta cheese stands out: It accounts for around half of the recipe's total carbon footprint, even though it only makes up around a fifth of the ingredients by weight. Of course, animal farming and the resulting emissions play a role here: on average, it takes about 10 liters of fresh milk to make 1 kg of cheese (source). Feta is an important flavor component, so I wouldn't leave it out despite its carbon footprint.
Comparison of Ingredients
| Ingredients | Carbon footprint per kg | Carbon footprint for recipe | % of ingredients | % of CO₂ emissions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feta | 7.0 | 1750 | 21% | 49% |
| olive oil | 3.2 | 128 | 3% | 4% |
| garlic | 0.5 | 5 | 1% | 0% |
| canned tomatoes | 1.8 | 1080 | 52% | 30% |
| chili powder | 1.1 | 1 | 0% | 0% |
| salt | 1.1 | 1 | 0% | 0% |
| pepper | 1.1 | 1 | 0% | 0% |
| chickpeas | 1.3 | 325 | 21% | 9% |
| parsley | 1.1 | 11 | 1% | 0% |
| Bake: 30 min | 263 | 7% |