Roasted Chickpeas

Are you looking to elevate your snack game? These Roasted Chickpeas are not only delicious but also nutritious! They are a tasty, crunchy snack high in protein and fiber. Add these to the snack list for your next party, get-together, or road trip!

Are you team salty or team sweet? If I’m being honest, it depends on the day! However, people think there’s something to that ‘crunch’ factor for helping to relieve stress. The research suggests that simply chewing can help release endorphins, may help reduce cortisol levels, and even the repetitive nature of chewing can help promote mindfulness. Not to mention that something crunchy requires a little more effort to eat, so can these BBQ-roasted chickpeas help relieve your stress? I’m not so sure they’ll relieve your stress, but I will say that as a dietitian and diabetes educator, they are not only nutritious but also delicious!

In the past couple of weeks, I’ve released two chickpea recipes, Chickpea ‘Tuna’ Salad and Mediterranean Chickpea Salad. Today make the third recipe. While this might appear as though I have a favorite bean, truthfully, chickpeas are just one of the easier beans to start with to incorporate into your eating patterns. Not to be outdone are my Instant Pot Black Beans and my Roasted Veggie and Pinto Bean Tacos.

Health Benefits of Beans

Chickpeas and all pulses have multiple components that, when combined with an overall balanced diet, have been shown to help prevent many chronic diseases: diabetes, heart disease, and more! Chickpeas are rich in fiber, folate (vitamin B₉), manganese, and other minerals. Several studies suggest that including chickpeas in one’s diet may help improve cholesterol levels and reduce blood sugar. Whether you buy canned chickpeas or make them homemade, this dietitian encourages you to include more chickpeas into your diet in any way you can!

Ingredients: Roasted Chickpeas

• Chickpeas: The KEY to making sure these turn out crispy and delicious is to make sure they are completely DRY! This is a critical part of what you can control when making this recipe. What you can’t control? Who made the beans!! This means that depending on which brand you purchase, you may yield different results (I tried this with three different brands of beans, and they all required a different cooking time. Frustrating? Maybe, but you can learn from me and keep checking them! And then I stumbled on something along the way that helped crisp them right up! Keep reading!
• Salt: I purchased no-added salt beans and used a smidge of salt to flavor these guys. I also made them with a BBQ flavor, and that mixture came from my Homemade Baked BBQ Chips.

How To Make Roasted Chickpeas

Add your oil after you’ve roasted the chickpeas. Starting with completely dry beans, roasting them will help draw out the moisture, and letting them stay in the oven will help them dry out even more. It’s a fine line between crisp and burnt chickpeas.

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
2. Dry – make sure the beans are completely dry!
3. Mix the spices, if using, and measure out your oil (you’ll add this after they bake!) and set aside.
4. Spread the chickpeas on a baking sheet. You can line it with parchment paper or foil for easier clean-up.
5. Bake the chickpeas for 20-25 minutes or until the beans are completely crunchy but not burned. Give them a good shake right at the 10-minute mark. Then, at 20 minutes, start watching them and check every one to two minutes.
6. Turn the oven off, shake the chickpeas, and place back in the oven for 15 more minutes. Yes, you heard me right!
7. Transfer the beans to a bowl, drizzle with the oil, and add the optional seasonings. Mix until well-coated.
8. Cool for 5 minutes before serving. Eat and enjoy! These can be stored in an airtight container for up to one week (if they last that long!)

Tips & Tricks

• Eat them fast, but not too fast! I know this sounds like a contradiction, but hear me out. Roasted chickpeas are best the day they’re made. However, I would not want you eating the whole can all at once. There is such a thing as too much fiber. So know you’ve been warned!
• Store them at room temperature! You don’t want to refrigerate these as they can get too chewy. Grab an airtight container and set them on the counter in your line of vision so you remember to munch on them!
• Spice them up! Simple roasted chickpeas with just 1/8 teaspoon of salt are all you need. But get creative. I added my BBQ seasoning, and this is my go-to flavoring for them. I’ve been dying to try them with the ‘Everything But The Bagel’ Seasoning!

Other Chickpea Recipes

• Instant Pot Chickpeas
• Marinated Chickpeas
• Chickpea ‘Tuna’ Salad
• Mediterranean Chickpea Salad

Print