What to Do with Leftover Chickpeas: Roasted Chickpeas with Thai-Inspired Dressing

AKA your new wine accompaniment

The Capsule Pantry in one sentence: Eat incredibly well, save time, money, and food waste with our highly customizable recipes designed to adapt to what you love to eat and have in your pantry. Access all recipes for $5 a month or $50 a year

---

I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve left a half can of chickpeas to languish in the back of the fridge, usually only thrown away when it grows new lifeforms.

That is until I discovered roasted chickpeas.

I love a little snack with the first glass of wine of the evening. This is my favourite time of day, the punctuation mark when work pauses and anticipation of the evening’s antics rises.

This is when roasted chickpeas come into their own.

The premise is simple. Rinse chickpeas, skin them (worth the effort), dry them, roast them with oil. Pile in punchy flavours. Serve.

Skinning the chickpeas

You can make them as simple as you like, even with just a little salt and pepper. Or you can jazz them up as I’ve done here.

As with many good recipes, this was stolen and adapted from something I ate elsewhere. I discovered Szechuan chickpeas a rather lovely local Glaswegian joint called Phillies. The fresh chili and spring onions are worth it if you have them, or you can make this from storecupboard-only ingredients depending on how much cooking you feel like.

---

Roasted chickpeas — basic recipe

Serves 2-4 as a snack

• 1/2 can chickpeas

• Salt, pepper

• Olive oil

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F.

Rinse the chickpeas.

Pop the chickpeas out of their skins.

Dry for as long as you can on paper towel.

Place on a baking sheet. Glug a little olive oil over to coat and season heavily with sea salt.

Roast for around 30 minutes or until the chickpeas are golden and crispy, shaking the pan every 10.

Hot tip: Chickpeas have a tendency to explode in the oven. Skinning them and ensuring they are as dry as possible before putting them in the oven really helps. Please be careful when you take them out. I can tell you from personal experience that exploding chickpeas hurt.

---

Thai-inspired dressing

Mix up a dressing of equal parts lime or lemon juice and soy sauce. Just a teaspoon of each is fine, you don’t want to drown the chickpeas and make them soggy.

Throw in a small amount of finely chopped garlic, chili, and coriander.

Mix into the roasted chickpeas whilst they’re still warm.

Top with thin slices of chilli and spring onion and serve immediately.

---

Other dressing ideas

• Toss the chickpeas in smoked paprika before putting them in the oven.

• Crush 10-15 Szechuan peppercorns and mix with a little olive oil. Dress the chickpeas as soon as they come out of the oven.

• Roast the chickpeas in toasted sesame oil.

• Toss in dried chili flakes — Turkish pul biber is my go-to — once the chickpeas are out of the oven.

• Dress the cooked chickpeas in a mix of dried or fresh herbs. Oregano and rosemary would be good, as would fresh parsley.

• Smash a garlic clove and pop in with the chickpeas in the last 10 minutes of cooking.