Roasted Chickpeas

As we have been eating more healthy and homemade food, we have stopped buying typical snack foods like chips.  That has been good for us, but I really enjoy salty/crunchy/savory foods.  Give me a bag of chips over a bag of candy any day!  So I get pretty excited when I find something healthy I can make that satisfies my craving for a salty snack.

I came across the idea of roasted chickpeas a couple months ago and it intrigued me.  We have been eating beans a lot more than we used to, so I thought I would give it a try.  I don't know if I set the oven temperature wrong, the timer wrong, or just forgot about them, but I burned them so badly they were pretty much irredeemable.

Discouraged by my failure, I didn't bother trying again until very recently.  What spurred me on was the thought that maybe I could make them in the dehydrator.  Then there would be a much lower risk of me burning them!  So that is what I tried, and they turned out so well that I decided to share my recipe with you!  Although it's not exactly a recipe... they're more like guidelines... :)


Roasted Chickpeas (in the dehydrator)

Canned chickpeas (also called garbanzo beans)
Oil
Salt and/or any other seasoning you want

One batch involves one can of chickpeas.  You can totally do more than one batch at once, and you can use dried chickpeas, but you have to rehydrate them and cook them first.

Drain and rinse the chickpeas.  Gently dry them on a dish towel.  You want the oil to stick, so drying them is important.  Put the chickpeas on your dehydrator tray.  Drizzle a little oil over them and stir them around so that they are all coated with oil.  I used coconut oil, which added a nice flavour.

Then you turn the dehydrator on, and carry on with your day!  I didn't time how long it took for the chickpeas to dry, I just checked on them every now and then, left them overnight, and they were ready the next day.

When the chickpeas are dry and have become crunchy rather than chewy, pour them into a bowl and season them with salt or whatever seasonings you want.  I used salt and pepper.  They would also be good with a spicy seasoning or cinnamon and sugar if you would prefer something sweet.

Enjoy!