Crispy Roasted Chickpeas

Last Year's Post: Salmon Orzo Salad with Lemon and Pea Pods
Two Years Ago:  Manchego Cheese Quesadilla with Pepper Jam

Just because there aren't enough controversies going on in the world at the moment, allow me to add another: how to roast chickpeas.  I recently realized that there are a bunch of recipes out there with the goal of producing a nice, crisp snack, but they all vary - add olive oil before or after roasting?  how long to roast?  add spices before or after roasting?  etc. etc.

For my initial attempt which was to be a garnish on a middle eastern salad, I used the compromise approach of putting the olive oil and spices on the chickpeas midway through roasting, and I roasted them for 50 minutes as specified in the recipe.  The result was hard, crunchy chickpeas with burnt spices.  Yum.

So, I decided to get scientific and compared roasting with and without oil and for various time periods (both without spices, I learned that lesson already).  I also wanted to check on how crisp they were the next day, because one recipe suggested they lose crispness within hours.  I divided one can of chickpeas (which contained 240 chickpeas, by the way) into two camps:  add oil before roasting, and add oil after.

 For each of those two groups, I roasted equal amounts for 20, 30, 40 and 50 minutes respectively.  The results are shown below - the chickpeas roasted with oil are on the bottom, and the ones roasted without are on the top.  From left to right, you can see the results after 20, 30 40 and 50 minutes.

Surprisingly, the addition of oil or not before roasting made no discernible difference in taste or texture.  The chickpeas roasted for 20 minutes changed texture slightly, but I wouldn't call them crisp.  And the ones roasted for 50 minutes were too dark and had a slightly burnt taste.  Both groups roasted for 30 and 40 minutes were crisp, although my personal preference leaned more toward the 30 minute batch.

So, then I added olive and salt to the 30 and 40 minute batches even if they had olive oil before roasting, because it's necessary to make spices stick.  All four tasted great.  And finally, I left them out overnight to test their texture in the morning, and all four remained crisp.  Success!

Having said all that, these crispy chickpeas are a great and healthy snack, and a wonderful garnish for all sorts of other dishes - salads and soups in particular.  You can change the flavor profile by changing the spices to suit any type of cuisine.  Have fun!

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Crispy Roasted Chickpeas

Makes about 1 cup

1 (15 ounce) can chickpeas

1 tablespoon olive oil

Salt and pepper

1-2 teaspoons spices or finely chopped herbs such as chili powder, cumin, smoked paprika, rosemary, thyme, curry powder, etc.

Preheat oven to 400d.

Thoroughly rinse and drain the chickpeas, then spread out on a clean dishtowel and pat dry.  Remove any loose chickpea skins.  Spread the chickpeas in a single layer on a baking sheet.  Roast in the oven for approximately 30-35 minutes until light golden, stirring the chickpeas or shaking the pan every 10 minutes.  Remove from the oven and drizzle with the olive oil, then add salt, pepper and your desired seasonings to taste.  Stir with a spoon to coat evenly, then let cool in a single layer.  When completely cool, store in an airtight container.