Crispy chickpeas, two ways (forage)

At the job I had before grad school, my friend Lenore (who has a food blog too!) introduced me to the concept of "mouth-bored." You know that feeling you get when you're not really hungry and gum just won't satisfy, but you still have the compulsion to eat? Yeah, that's mouth-bored. She'd eat carrots (sometimes peeling them at her desk!) or green peppers and I'd usually have some kind of stash of stale crackers and a small tub of peanut butter with which I could make do. It was a sad state of affairs.

I thought about this as I looked into my pantry last night. I like to munch on a little something when I'm in between meals and/or when I'm mouth-bored. It was lookin' a little lean, snack-wise. I did have two cans of chickpeas just hanging out and I knew that roasting chickpeas was a thing (just google it--you'll be buried in recipes) so I figured I'd give it a shot.

Crank up your ovens, y'all! It's time to make some crispy chickpeas!

I tried it out two ways, because I get mouth-bored for either sweet or savory things and I wanted to be prepared. I made this sorta spur of the moment, so I didn't use dried chickpeas. Instead, I used canned beans and rinsed them thoroughly. I tried to skin as many of the chickpeas as I could, but that's really not necessary with this recipe. It's a lot of fuss, so I don't think you need to bother unless, like me, you find skinning them a good way to keep your hands busy while you're thinking about other things.

I preheated the oven to 400F. After drying the chickpeas, I mixed in a couple tablespoons of olive oil and half a teaspoon of salt. I placed the chickpeas in the oven and let them get crispy. This takes about 30-40 minutes. They're done when they're crispy all the way through, with no softness left.

While the chickpeas roasted, I came up with my spice blends. For the sweet, I used brown sugar, lemon zest, and cinnamon.

For the savory, I used turmeric, cumin, gochugaru (Korean red pepper flakes, which you could replace with a little cayenne), and chili powder (which is buried under the other spices below).

When the chickpeas were finished in the oven (re: nice and crispy) I placed half of them in the sweet blend and half in the savory. I did this while the chickpeas were still hot, because I think it allowed the spices to adhere to the chickpeas better.

The sweet:

The savory:

They were really tasty. I liked the taste of the sweet combination best, but the sugar and lemon zest affected the crunchiness of the chickpeas after a day or two. I think next time, I'll do a sweet and spicy blend. It's a cheap and easy snack that definitely kept my mouth-boredom at bay!


Crispy chickpeas, two ways
adapted from chow.com

Preheat the oven to 400F. Rinse two 15 oz. cans of chickpeas and pat them dry. Place chickpeas on a large baking sheet and mix it with two tbsp olive oil and 1/2 tsp salt. Bake the chickpeas in the oven for 30-400 minutes, until they are crispy all the way through. While the chickpeas cook, mix up the spice blends.

For sweet chickpeas: Mix 1 tbsp brown sugar, 2 tsp lemon zest, and 1 tsp cinnamon in a medium-sized bowl.

For savory chickpeas: Mix 1 tsp turmeric, 1 tsp gochugaru (or 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper), 1 tsp cumin, and 2 tsp chili powder. 

When the chickpeas are done and, while they're still piping hot, use a large spoon to mix the chickpeas into whatever spice blend you've mixed up. Store in an airtight container.


Ingredient list
2 15 oz cans of chickpeas
olive oil
salt
for the sweet blend
brown sugar
lemon zest
cinnamon
for the savory blend
turmeric
cumin
chili powder
gochugaru or cayenne