Roasted Chickpeas

Let me say right off the bat: this is not a great recipe.

It has the potential to be a great recipe--I really wanted it to be a great recipe--but as it stands right now, it's in need of some serious tweaking. And that tweaking may just be the simple addition of a Tablespoon of olive oil, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Last week, I hosted what will probably prove to be our last Park Slope dinner party. It was just a few close friends, nothing super fancy (I made an endive salad, Molly Stevens's killer Coq au Vin, and a flourless chocolate cake for dessert) but, as an opening snack, I served these roasted chickpeas from Patricia Wells's "Provence Cookbook."

I did it partially because Mark and Diana brought a cocktail shaker and ingredients to make French 75s:

(Those consisted of a sugar cube, a squeeze of lime, Cointreau, gin and champagne. They were tasty!)

I wanted a bar snacky kind of snack to go nicely with the drink, hence the roasted chickpeas.

And making roasted chickpeas couldn't be easier. Are you ready?

1. Preheat the oven to 450.

2. Drain and rinse a can of chickpeas. (I used two cans, which may have been part of the problem.)

3. Pat the chickpeas very dry!

4. Place them on a cookie sheet and toss them with salt, pepper and cumin. (Note: this is where I'd add a splash of olive oil if I had to do it again. More on that later.)

5. Pop into the oven.

6. Toss periodically.

7. 40 minutes later, you will have roasted chickpeas!

Toss with more salt, pepper and cumin and pour into a bowl:

On the good side, these chickpeas--with no olive oil--were delightfully fat free, relatively healthy, and crunchy (except for the few that were mealy and undercooked).

On the bad side, they were kind of bland and sad and chalky and, really, not that good.

So: to improve them, I'd add olive oil, and follow some of these other recipes to see if they're better. But, if it encourages you at all, despite their chalky blandness, the entire bowl was gone by the time we were ready to eat dinner. And most people admitted not loving them, but liked them well enough. And you don't have to love everything you eat, do you? I mean, it's not like you love everyone you sleep with, right? What?! Where did that come from!? Ok, here's a bunch of other (maybe better) roasted chickpea recipes.

Other (Maybe Better) Roasted Chickpea Recipes

Spicy Oven-Roasted Chickpeas from The Kitchn

Crispy Roasted Chickpeas from Kalyn's Kitchen

Roasted Chickpeas: Wrong Way, Right Way from Cheap Healthy Good