Roasted chickpeas

How to roast chickpeas:

At breakfast, put a cup of chickpeas to soak in a large bowl of water. An hour and a half before dinner, rinse the chickpeas and put them in a saucepan over high heat in plenty of fresh water.

Bring to a boil and simmer for half an hour or until the chickpeas are soft all the way through. (Or skip this step and use canned chickpeas, but the dried ones will have more flavor.) Rinse them again.

Preheat the oven to 450 F. Spread out the chickpeas on a dishtowel to dry, and pat them with another dishtowel – get them dry or they’ll be soggy instead of crunchy. Spread the chickpeas out on a baking sheet, and roll them in a mixture of 1/8 cup of olive oil, 1 teaspoon of kosher salt, and 1 teaspoon of chopped thyme or cayenne pepper, if you’d like them spicy. Bake for half an hour, or until the chickpeas are brown and crunchy. Shake or stir the pan from time to time to prevent burning. Be especially careful near the end not to let them burn.

Serve hot, or let them get cold first.

Can I store roasted chickpeas for later?

Roasted chickpeas will be fine the next day or two.

Published by Karen Carr

Dr. Karen Carr is Associate Professor Emerita, Department of History, Portland State University. She holds a doctorate in Classical Art and Archaeology from the University of Michigan. Follow her on Instagram, Pinterest, or Facebook, or buy her book, Vandals to Visigoths.

Leave a comment