roasted chickpeas

These little guys are flavorful and hearty. Easy to prepare, and cute to boot. There are many, many recipes that vary on this theme (see here, and this is hilarious from Cheap Healthy Good) and vary widely in both time and oven temperature. I experimented with cooking them at different  lengths of time and temp – at 400 for 50 minutes worked well.  Then I found this recipe in Glamour which suggests broiling them. They turned out great, and if there is a faster way, I’m all for it. I’ll be broiling from here out.

ingredients

1 15 oz can chickpeas

1 teaspoon olive oil

salt

chili powder

Directions:

Drain and dry chickpeas well. Toss with oil and spread peas onto a cookie sheet in one even layer. Put under the broiler for 10 minutes. Keep a close eye on them as burning can happen fast with a broiler. Allow to cool on the sheet so you don’t burn yourself when you pour them into a small bowl. Add salt to taste and chili powder to your preferred level of spiciness.

Note about spices: For the chili powder, I used Penzy’s Regular and Medium Chili Powders. I was new to these powders and found them SO much more flavorful than the normal grocery chili powder I’d had in my cabinet. The smell alone of these Penzy’s powders is mouthwatering and the flavor is really rich. I sprinkled in a little of Regular and then Medium and then Regular again until I found a good level of flavor and spiciness.

Experimentation: These would be great to have on hand for throwing into a salad, or to use as part of a trail mix. I snacked on them with a cup of tea. There are endless possibilities for mixing up the flavors – curry powder, cumin, garam masala, just salt and black pepper, and on and on.  I also made this using dried beans (soaking overnight and then boiling for about 40 minutes) instead of canned and they did have a slightly better texture if you are willing to invest the time for a few extra steps.