Crispy Chickpeas

A couple weekends ago I ate an awesome 3 Bean Salad and I was inspired to recreate this masterpiece for the QLK.  It took A LOT of effort.  Wanting to give it my all, I decided that instead of buying canned beans, I would go through the process of buying dried ones, soaking them for 12 hours, and then cooking them for another hour and a half. Somewhat to my surprise, the beans came out perfectly.  In the past, a couple of my bean cooking endeavors resulted in pots of bean-mush, so when that didn’t happen, I took it as a good omen.  Not so much.

The salad was composed of green beans, black beans, and chickpeas, and I dressed it with a roasted shallot-walnut vinaigrette.  I assumed that something this simple would be difficult to mess up, especially after getting over the bean hurdle, but unfortunately I was wrong.  The vinaigrette was disappointingly boring and the salad itself was in dire need of some onion and/or fresh herbs, neither of which I had in my kitchen at the time.  Needless to say, the recipe will not be posted.

Determined to avoid complete failure, I set out to make use of the enormous container of perfectly cooked chickpeas now sitting in my fridge.  These beans would not be relegated to mere salad toppers!  I searched for recipes and I came across this one on the Food and Wine website.  It was immediately appealing because it was flagged as a staff favorite (these people eat for a living), and since I already have a high success rate with the recipes in this mag, I knew it was a safe bet.  Thus, the perfect snack was born!  The beans are coated in a yummy mix of ground coriander, cumin and salt.  Flavorful, crispy, and delicious.  Healthy?  Ehh, we all need to indulge every once in a while.  At least we’re not eating potato chips.

Moral of the story…cook your beans and then fry them if all else fails.  The end.

Crispy Chickpeas

(adapted from Jason Travi on Food and Wine.com)

  • 2 cups cooked chickpeas (either canned or dried)
  • 1/2 cup toasted sesame oil (original recipe used vegetable oil)
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1 teaspoon ground coriander
  • 1/3 cup flour (I used whole wheat)
  • Sea Salt to taste

Heat the oil in a pan for about 2-3 minutes.  Place the chickpeas in a bowl and toss with cumin and coriander.  Add the flour and mix so that they are evenly coated.  Using a mesh strainer, tap off the excess flour.

Pour half the chickpeas into the pan.  Cook for about 8 minutes until brown and crispy.  Using a slotted spoon, remove from pan and place on a paper towel lined cookie sheet to drain.  Repeat with the remaining chickpeas.  Add salt to taste.  Snack away!


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