Truth be told, cake, chocolate and ice cream are not my guilty pleasures, it’s those devilish crisp and salty chips that tempt me. When I was in junior high, I used to let my brown-bagged lunches pile up on the bottom of my locker and, instead, would buy a bag of either All Dressed or Ketchup chips from the Snack Shack at school, and that was what my lunch consisted of (sorry Mom!).
As I grew up, tastes changes and I made attempts for healthier chip alternatives, like bean chips with guacamole or chips and salsa. My issue was always still portion control; I could sit and use up a jar of salsa with a bag of Tostitos’ while watching a movie. During my nutritional studies, I learned the importance of being honest about what we crave, learning why we might crave these things (i.e. our body is communicating some form of nutritional deficiency, such as sodium, causing us to crave something salty) and then explore healthier alternatives to meet the emotional needs while keeping on track with our own health goals.
I began exploring a few different chip alternatives; I created a peach salsa and homemade Cumin Tortilla Chip recipe that really satisfies me. I also started exploring with flavors for chickpea snacks and I quickly fell in love. The chickpeas take in the flavors you provide through spice blends. Roasting them with oil and sea salt provides that fat and salty taste I crave and indulging that hand to mouth snacking habit for those movie nights. Here are three of my favorite chickpea combinations
Roasted Chickpea Snacking: 3 ways
Ingredients
Salt & Vinegar
- 1 15 ounce can of chickpeas drained and rinsed or ¾ dried chickpeas cooked
- 2 tbsp. avocado oil
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 tbsp distilled white vinegar
- 1 tbsp coarse sea salt
Spicy Buffalo
- 15 ounce can of chickpeas drained and rinsed or ¾ dried chickpeas cooked
- 2 tbsp avocado oil
- 1 tbsp your favourite Buffalo sauce
- 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp chilli powder
- 1/8 tsp Turmeric powder
Ketchup (this ketchup seasoning recipe was inspired by the food networks, ketchup chip popcorn seasoning)
- 2 tbsp melted coconut oil
- 2 tbsp coconut sugar
- 2 tbsp tomato paste (I use my Raw Fresh Garden Tomato Sauce here)
- 2 tsp distilled white vinegar
- 2 tsp apple cider vinegar
- 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
- 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper
- Toss the washed and dried chickpeas in the flavor mix above of your choice. For the Ketchup seasoning, place all ingredients except coconut oil in a bowl. Melt the coconut oil in a sauce pan and pour the warm coconut oil overtop of the sugar and tomato mixture and stir to help dissolve the sugars. Whisk well before tossing the chickpeas.
- Spread chickpeas out on the baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes. Move the chickpeas around with a wooden spoon and bake for an additional 5-10 minutes. For the Salt & Vinegar I often add an extra tbsp. of distilled vinegar at this time to enhance the flavor. Remember, you want them nicely roasted by not too dry so keep an eye on them for the last 5 minutes.
- Pull them out of the oven, spoon your roasted chickpeas into a bowl and go turn that movie on and enjoy!