In an ongoing search for healthier snacks (i.e. not chips), the Accidental Locavore recently came across a bunch of recipes for roasted chickpeas. These, from the NY Times, are super easy, and probably pretty heathy, but you do need some time to let them dry before you roast them. Makes a good-sized bowl to snack from:
Roasted and Crispy Chickpeas
- 2 cups cooked chickpeas, rinsed if canned
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons za’atar
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
Spread out chickpeas on a paper towel. Pat dry, then let dry for about an hour.
Heat oven to 400 degrees. Line a heavy rimmed sheet pan with parchment paper, and spread chickpeas evenly on the pan. Bake in the center of the oven until crunchy, about 30 minutes, stirring and rotating every 10 minutes. (The chickpeas will continue to get crunchy as they cool.)
Place hot chickpeas in a bowl and drizzle with olive oil, za’atar and salt. Serve and enjoy!
My verdict:
A surprisingly flawed recipe from the “paper of record”. A few of my chickpeas were actually crunchy, most were just sort of tough. With both these and the crunchy mushrooms, I used the convection setting on my oven because I figured it would add to the crunch. Now I’m not so sure. Anyone have any ideas? I did let them dry for most of the morning, so it wasn’t that. The za’atar is an interesting blend of spices and would probably be great on warm chickpeas or on a chickpea salad. If I tried these again, I would first toss them in the oil and za’atar and then roast them. That way, although they wouldn’t be as healthy, they might have a better chance of being crunchy and the za’atar wouldn’t all fall to the bottom of the bowl. Have you made crispy chickpeas? How did you do them?
