Now that December is in full swing, it's my turn to join the throngs of food bloggers that are focusing on all of the upcoming holidays this month. Until Christmas, I'm going to try and focus on food and drink recipes that would compliment the plethora of holiday parties/cocktail parties/celebration dinners that are gearing up to take place.
I am also very curious about snacks that aren't so, well, carb-laden. I dunno about you but I am beginning to feel like my bathrobe is a little tight. Between all of the yummy festivities around Thanksgiving, doing recipe development on some soups, and just a general lapse in my healthy habits...I'm feeling a little puffy.
In an effort to right that, I started thinking about roasted chickpeas. They've popped up in a few restaurants here as a sharable snack and I've seen them on a ton of websites and blogs (Kalyn has a great recipe, as well). This is a healthy-ish high fiber snack that you can easily whip together with things you have on hand - my batch came together in about an hour after rummaging the pantries. It's great because you can make some on-the-fly nibbles for last minute cocktail get-togethers that pop up. Feel free to use this recipe as a guide - you can adjust the salt/heat/spice on these to suit your liking. The key here is to get them as dry as possible before seasoning and roasting - it makes all the difference, believe me.
Roasted Chickpeas
- 2 15 oz. cans garbanzo beans
- 2 tbsp. olive oil
- 1 tbsp. garam masala powder
- 1 tbsp. chili powder
- 1 tbsp. smoked paprika
- 1 tbsp. chipotle powder
- 1 tbsp. salt
- Preheat oven to 400F.
- Drain garbanzo beans in strainer and rinse thoroughly. Allow to sit and drain until dry. Pat the garbanzo beans dry to remove as much water as possible.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine all spices, salt and oil. Carefully combine garbanzo beans in bowl and coat completely with spice mixture.
- Pour beans onto a rimmed baking sheet and bake in oven for 40-50 minutes. My batch took the full 50 minutes but I would check on your batch at 40 to make sure nothing is exploding/burning.
- Allow to cool and serve.
