Saturday, January 14, 2012

An Obsession

Spiced Roasted Chick Peas
This week we traveled to South Beach, Florida for a 4-day conference (boo hoo- I know) and I have really missed being in the kitchen, cooking, blogging and writing. Two food observations when it comes to traveling: 1) It's really hard to eat healthily and cheaply, 2) It's not easy for the home-cook to maintain any sort of schedule or meal plans when an upcoming trip is on the calendar. For the days leading up to the trip we were ordering take-out because we didn't want to grocery shop and load up our fridge with groceries that wouldn't get eaten. Now we're back (thank goodness), and hopefully some resemblance of order will be restored in the kitchen.

I've recently become enamored with the chick pea. Hummus and salads are delicious staples in our home, but I'm discovering that this versatile ingredient can go much farther. If you dry chick peas and then blend them, it makes chick-pea flour, which can make many things like healthy crackers and crust. There is also a new trend of dessert hummus which involves subbing cocoa or cinnamon and sugar for the savory ingredients like roasted red peppers and garlic. I attempted but failed at a dessert hummus recipe here, but am confident that with more finesse it can work out!

As I write this, my Spiced Roasted Chick Peas are roasting away in the oven, and my apartment is filled with the aromas of cinnamon and other spices. If I close my eyes, the scent takes me to my favorite Moroccan restaurant, gorging on tender cinnamon-spiked marinated beef and loading up warm flat bread with spicy chutneys, hummus, olive oil and soft cheeses. Sigh... Do I have to wake up?

Spiced Roasted Chick Peas

Canned chick peas, salt, pepper, garlic powder, paprika, cinnamon, garam masala spice mix, turmeric, olive oil.

Rinse chick peas thoroughly.

Pat dry. (A special thanks to my lil' sis' who gave me these rockin' turquoise bowls for Christmas. Love them!)

Add spices and olive oil. The turmeric is such a great color! 

Toss gently by shaking bowl (I don't recommend using any utensils), this keeps the chick peas from breaking up. Pour onto baking sheet and roast at 450 degrees for 45-50 minutes.




Follow the Recipe Here: Spiced Roasted Chick Peas from She Simmers

These Spiced Roasted Chick Peas make a great snack and are way healthier then chips. Store them in an air-tight container or mason jar and reach for them often! Don't be intimidated if you don't have all the right spices for this recipe, I encourage you to try you own favorite combinations. Rosemary, truffle oil and sea salt. Wasabi, soy sauce and sesame seeds. There are lots of fun variations. What would you try?

5 comments:

  1. I have been making so many things with chick peas recently! Roasted chick peas... are my fave!

    ReplyDelete
  2. @ Carrie- Have you ever baked with chick pea flour? That's my next adventure:-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love roasted chickpeas! My favorite is store bought cajun seasoning on them. So simple and delicious! Also, I've never heard of dessert hummus before but I"m so excited about it now!

    ReplyDelete
  4. @Lindsay-Cajun seasoning is a great idea! I'm going to try that next time. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  5. This recipe look great! I would love it if you linked up this post to my blog hop for a chance to win a cookbook prize package: http://ow.ly/9K5BY

    ReplyDelete