Roasted Chickpeas

I love Chickpeas. Yes I do! I like them fried best! The first time I recall eating fried chickpeas was when our friend Chef Alex Raij of Txikito made them for us. Deep fried I believe, then tossed with what I guess was salt, smoky paprika and a dash of heaven? (Never denied I wasn’t corny). Alex’s Chickpeas were perfectly GBD: golden, brown, and delicious!

At home I don’t fry them. I do them the second best possible way to eat Chickpeas: roasted in the oven. Or is the second best way to eat Chickpeas in Hummus Form? Hmmm… Okay. Tied for second best way to eat Chickpeas: oven roasted!

The easiest way to do them is just a little (or a lot) of olive oil, salt, and FRESHLY ground pepper. Toss it all together and roast. Usually I do it anywhere from 450F-500F in a convection oven, stirring a few times through the cooking process. For how long? Until it’s done! (Don’t you hate when people say that?) I bake them until they’ve shrunk a bit, start looking golden brown, and are nice and crispy. This requires tasting every now and then. Torture, I know.

Some times, in addition to salt and FRESHLY ground pepper (notice a message here about Pepper?), I will add garlic powder, onion powder, cumin, chili powder, and sweet and smoky Paprikas (both types). I looooove the smoky Paprika. It almost makes me feel like I’m in Spain. Almost I said. Then I toss it all with olive oil and again into a high heat oven.

Once they look like they’ve shrunk and are golden brown and pretty darn crisp, they’re done. I eat them as a snack 99.99% of the times. But they also rock as garnish for soups or salads. You will notice that some do not get all the way crisp. Either leave them in oven longer or just enjoy the different levels of crispiness.

Can you see they’re GOLDEN?

BROWN?

And DELICIOUS?

They were!!!