Roasted Chickpeas

During this past weekend, I found some time to make a batch of something I had been meaning to try for at least a year.  As you may realize, I have found garbanzo beans (chickpeas) to be a really great food that I have been eating more and more frequently over the last several years.   My wife and I make all sorts of curried Indian dishes with chickpeas, I have made some Mexican inspired dishes as well.  We have added them into various stews, soups and chills and we eat and often make our own hummus from chickpeas.  

Well, somewhere, perhaps about a year ago or so, I remember reading somewhere on-line about someone roasting chickpeas as a snack.  The way they did it was to coat them in olive oil and roast them in the oven for some period of time.  They reported that they had a crunch and similar flavor to that of "Corn Nuts" the snack item that is made from hominy corn (seen in the image).

Well, that sounded interesting to me.  I like "Corn Nuts", but as you also may know, I tend to not want to eat a lot of higher fat things, and I do not like cooking/bakinig with oils or fats because I dislike the smell of hot oil.  So, I kept thinking that I should try to make these roasted chickpeas.... but do so without oil.

Well finally I did so this past weekend.  I made two batches.   One simply with salt, and the other I covered in a mixture of spice.... a little salt, and then pepper, curry, and a bit of rosemary.  For my experiment, I used canned chickpeas this time and simply drained and washed them.  I then let them dry for about 1/2 hour.   I then coated them with the respective seasoning(s) and baked them on a cookie sheet for about 45 minutes at 400 degrees F (200 C).

After I let them cool, I put them in bags and have been snacking on them ever since.  They ARE very crunchy and good!  My wife likes them too, although she is more fond of just the simple salted ones (she is not as big a spice fan as me).

I will definitely be making these again.  And they are also fat free!

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