When Oven Roasted Chickpeas appeared on my radar last year, I fell immediately in love with the idea. I tried them but I just couldn’t hang. They’d be crispy out of the oven – for a few minutes, and a few minutes only. Well, these are not those chickpeas!
Oven Roasted Chickpeas – Just do a spritz with a little olive oil and toss with a spice mix.
I’ve never sampled fried chickpeas from a vendor in India or even here in the states, and I can imagine how delicious, warm and fragrant they are. Descriptions abound about the serious crunchy goodness that comes from the little cones filled with “Fry Chana.”
Which brings me to a little trick: when looking for info about a recipe, turn to the experts. Search in the language of the area the food originates in, then just hit the little translate button. You can get an app from google and install it on your search bar.
Oven Roasted Chickpeas
That way you’ll connect with bloggers sharing recipes all over the world; beautiful people who take time out of their day to share their passion, knowledge, and skills! A search for Roasted Chana gave me all sorts of hints:
- Use dried chickpeas.
- Soak overnight and cook, then spread out to air dry.
- Dry roast them, stirring now and then and don’t crowd the pan.
- Season hot out of the oven.
I, of course, in a typical brash and bold American style corrupted the simple recipes I found with a few touches of my own. I went a little wild, flavoring these with whatever came to mind. I’ve made them with Curry, Adobo, Cajun, and my favorite so far, Jo Jo Spice!
Giving the still warm Garbanzos a quick spritz of cooking spray allows the spice blends to stick without any sogginess. A plus of using the dried Chickpeas? They’re fabulously frugal! This is a marvelous way to finish up a pot of leftover chickpeas, too. Oven roasted like this, they’ll keep for weeks so there’s no worry about waste.
Pull out your pressure cooker if you have one to cook the peas. And if you don’t have one, why not? And by the way, the only way I’ve found to “save” all the recipes that become soggy because they’re roasted with olive oil? Fry them.
Oven Roasted Chickpeas – these are flavored with Cajun Spice.
Oven Roasted Chickpeas
- 1 pound dried chickpeas
- Spice blend of your choice, to taste
- Cooking Spray (or Olive oil in a squirt bottle)
- Salt, optional
Soak Chickpeas overnight, cook according to package directions, drain and allow to dry. Spreading them out on an absorbent kitchen towel and rolling them around can help to facilitate the drying process.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a large baking sheet (or two) with foil, for easy clean up if you wish. Spread the dried chickpeas out. This is best done if the peas are not crowded.
Roast, stirring every now and then and rotating the pans front to back, top to bottom about halfway through. Watch carefully towards the end – ovens vary in temperature and intensity. The timing in mine was about 45 minutes total, but this might vary by a lot depending on your oven, how crowded the pans are and what type of pan you use.
When the peas are still warm, spritz very lightly with oil, then sprinkle heavily with the spice of your choice. Carefully roll the chickpeas around in the spice mixture, taste, add more of your spice if needed. Chickpeas may also be salted at this point.
Store in an airtight container. These will keep for weeks and weeks but the flavoring may dull a bit with time.
Let’s talk about how to save money/time on this recipe:
- Use a coupon matching site! Do not discount the savings! I check their site every week, even if I don’t “need” to go to the store and often find bargains I can’t pass up.
- Follow my 12 Strategies. You’ll find lots of tips on how to shop for and manage groceries
- Don’t get discouraged if your prices don’t match mine! Keep shopping at the best prices and your fridge/freezer and pantry will be stocked with sales priced ingredients.
- Read Strategies Applied for additional tips as well as throughout the recipe, for saving time and managing food.
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