There are still protests happening all over the country and we are grateful for the years of Black leadership that have gone into the current set of uprisings. We are keenly aware that freedom will not be achieved until All Black Lives Matter and this will not happen because of White folks, but also not without White folks. One way to stand in solidarity and support Black Leadership is to donate to Holistic Resistance’s Grief to Action Camp Fundraiser. If you are confused by why people are protesting, we recommend watching The 13th. It is a great look at some of the underlying structures of racism that have led us to where we are today.
We love making these crispy chickpeas and keeping them on hand to snack on, take to protests, or to sprinkle on salads, or as a garnish on soup. This recipe calls for cooking the chickpeas from dried. It is best to start the chickpeas cooking in advance. You can even cook them the day before you bake them. If you don’t have access to dried beans or would prefer to have quicker crispy chickpeas canned chickpeas can be substituted. If you want a more flavorful experience when using canned beans, double the garlic powder.
Makes: 2 cups
Time: 2.5 hrs with an Instant Pot, more if cooking on stove top half the time if using canned chickpeas
Ingredients
1 1/3 dried chickpeas* (option to replace with 2 cans of chickpeas)
3 T olive oil
2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp salt
Step 1: Cook the chickpeas using an Instant Pot or on the stove. (If you are using canned chickpeas skip to step 2)
In the Instant Pot: Add 1 1/3 cup of dried chickpeas to the pot. Cover the beans with water (in the small Instant Pot this is about 6 cups of water), season with 1 tbsp kosher salt, 1 tbsp cumin, 1 tbsp garlic powder, and 1/4 tsp cayenne. Set the Instant Pot to pressure cook for 35 minutes letting depressurize naturally.
On the stove: If you don’t have an Instant Pot, you can easily cook chickpeas from scratch with a little planning. First you will need to soak the chickpeas which can be done one of two ways. 1. you can soak them overnight making sure they have enough water and space to double in size or 2. you can put them in a pot and bring to boil, then turn off the water and let soak for one hour. Again, make sure you have enough water and space that they can double in size. Once you have soaked your beans, rinse them and then put in a pot with salty water. These will be cooking for about 2 hours so you don’t want as much salt as you would use for pasta, but you do want to add enough that you can taste the salt in the water. The best way to get good at this is to practice. Each time you salt the water, taste it and when the beans are done taste them to see if they are well salted. A well salted bean should taste flavorful but not salty. If it tastes like you are eating salt, you added too much. If the bean lacks flavor then you didn’t have enough salt. For this recipe, also add 1 tbsp cumin, 1 tbsp garlic powder, and 1/4 tsp cayenne to the chickpeas as they cook. Cook the chickpeas until they are soft but not falling apart (this will take 1.5-2 hours). We recommend checking the beans at about an hour and then every 20 minutes until they are soft but not disintegrating. Make sure your pot has enough water as I have definitely cooked all the water off before and burnt the beans!
Step 2: Preheat the oven to 350 F. Drain and rinse the beans. Put the chickpeas on a sheet pan and drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle the chickpeas with garlic powder and salt and stir to coat evenly. Spread the chickpeas out into a single layer and roast 45 minutes to 1 hour, stirring every 20 minutes until they are golden brown and crispy.
