Crunchy Roasted Chickpeas

Roasted chickpeas are easy to make. They make a great salad topper, sandwich filling or plant-based snack. For the best results, follow these simple tips.

Canned chickpeas come swimming in a thick liquid called aquafaba. This liquid behaves somewhat like egg whites in recipes like Vegan Meringue Cookies, but if you're roasting chickpeas, you'll want to rinse it off. After rinsing the chickpeas, you'll need to dry them well with a paper towel so they go into the oven with as little liquid sticking to them as possible. If they go into the oven wet they'll steam, not roast. Canned chickpeas can harbor lots of sodium, so we opt for no-salt-added chickpeas and add just a little salt to the outside before roasting. We coat the chickpeas in cooking spray to give them a thin film of oil spread evenly that lightly fries the outside.

This roasted chickpeas recipe features just a little bit of salt as a flavoring, but you can add additional spices to suit your taste. Chili powder, cumin, curry powder, smoked paprika and even a little cinnamon sugar are all great options. If you're going to flavor your chickpeas, toss them in a teaspoon or two of spices about 5 minutes before they're done roasting and return them to the oven. This will allow the spices to stick to the chickpeas without burning.

Roasted chickpeas can lose their crunch pretty quickly. We recommend using them right away for maximum crispiness. If you need to store them, let them cool completely, then store them in an air-tight container at room temperature for up to 1 day. Storing for a few days past this point won't spoil them, but they may lose their crunch.

Additional reporting by Hilary Meyer