Spicy Roasted Chickpeas: Your New Favorite Snack
They're better than potato chips or pretzels—seriously.

If you’re on the hunt for a healthy snack to replace those greasy chips or sugary processed cookies, these roasted chickpeas are the easy homemade treat you’ve been looking for. Like all chickpea recipes, this snack is packed with fiber and protein. Roasting slowly dehydrates the chickpeas, leaving them crispy, crunchy, and satisfying—just like a nut or puffed grain.
Chickpeas, or garbanzo beans, are a common ingredient in the Mediterranean diet and Middle Eastern food. They are also popular among vegetarians and vegans—or anyone looking for a low-fat protein. You likely know them as the essential ingredient in hummus (another great healthy snack) or falafel.
This episode of To Eat With Love, our Mediterranean diet cooking show, shows how to make a crunchy chickpeas that can be eaten straight as a snack, or tossed on top of salad in place of croutons. Although chickpeas can be flavored in a variety of ways, this chickpea recipe uses savory Mediterranean spices like cumin and cayenne. Other popular ways to flavor roasted chickpeas is a chipotle blend (cumin, chili powder, lime juice), curry seasoning, or—to keep things simple—just the classic salt and pepper. You can also do sweet variations, such as cinnamon and sugar chickpeas, or pumpkin pie-spiced roasted chickpeas.
To make these Mediterranean-spiced roasted chickpeas, toss them with cayenne pepper, cumin seeds, and a pinch of salt before baking in the oven. These spiced chickpeas will become even crunchier as they cool, so it’s best to wait a few minutes before diving in to eat them.
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 cans (15.5 ounces each) low sodium chickpeas, rinsed, drained, and patted dry
- 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1 tablespoon cumin seed
- dash of coarse salt
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Pour olive oil on a rimmed baking sheet and place in oven until oil is hot, 3 minutes. 2. In a medium bowl, combine chickpeas, cayenne pepper, and cumin seed. Season with salt and toss to combine. 3. Place chickpea mixture on hot baking sheet and spread in a single layer. 4. Bake until chickpeas are crisp, 10 to 12 minutes. 5. With a slotted spoon, transfer to paper towels and let cool slightly. Serve warm.Nutrition Information
Nutrition Information Based on a Single Serving
*Percent Daily Value are based on a 2000 calorie diet. Your daily value may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.
Dietary Needs



Carbohydrate

Cholesterol




Fiorella DiCarlo is a registered dietitian in New York City.
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Hi I'm Fiorella and today we're gonna
make one of my favorite childhood snacks,
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spicy roasted chickpeas.
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They are so healthy and delicious.
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[MUSIC]
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Today we're gonna make a healthy snack
from these lovely little legumes.
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These guys are gonna
provide high fiber and
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protein in this great savory snack and
it's gonna be spicy too.
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We're going to put our extra
virgin olive oil over this pan.
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Now, extra virgin olive oil is
the gold of Mediterranean cooking.
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It is extremely healthy because it has a
lot of monounsaturated fats, and omega 3s.
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Really heart healthy and
anti-inflammatory for the body.
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So we're gonna kind of make this go
across this sheet pan like this.
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And the reason why we're
putting this in the oven is so
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that the chickpeas will be really,
really crispy.
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When I was younger, we would
actually roast chickpeas in a pan,
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my dad would do this for us.
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And we would call it the popcorn of
Mediterranean because we would have it
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before movies.
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And he would just fry it in a pan but
you have to be very,
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very careful because the oil and
the bean will pop.
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So we are choosing today some low sodium,
low fat beans.
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And what you can do is make sure that
you rinse them twice just to make
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sure you take out all the salt
out of the can as well.
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So, now what we're gonna do
is we're gonna spice them up.
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Today, we're gonna use
a cayenne pepper and
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this cayenne pepper is otherwise known as
red hot chili pepper or a Guinea pepper.
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So, we're gonna go ahead and
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put these in here and
we're gonna also have cumin seeds here and
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this is a stable from North African and
Middle Eastern cuisine, which is very,
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very influential in the Mediterranean diet
because it's really much a melting pot.
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So we're gonna go ahead and
put these in here too.
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And the essential oils in this cumin seed
actually are extremely heart healthy and
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contain a lot of antioxidants.
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Lastly, we're gonna add a little salt
here just to enhance the flavor overall,
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and make sure that everything
is mixed up perfectly.
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So, there we are.
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All right, so our sheet pan has been
in the oven for about three minutes.
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Great.
So now this is going to allow these
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chickpeas to be super crispy.
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We're gonna go ahead and
put our chickpeas evenly distributed,
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onto this pan here, like that.
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And this is great,
because chickpeas are a great street food.
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There are so many different
dishes made in the Mediterranean.
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Each country has their own
version of these chickpeas.
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There we are, so there we go.
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I'm gonna make sure they're evenly
distributed, so they cook evenly.
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And these ought to be nice and
crispy and delicious.
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We're gonna go ahead and put them back
into the oven for about 10 to 12 minutes.
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Chickpeas have a long history in
Mediterranean culture all the way back to
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Roman times.
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We now know that the gladiators used
to have a meal of chickpeas and
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beans to fuel their fight.
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All right, there they are and
look at this beautiful color.
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This just beautiful gorgeous amber color
that they came out with all of the spices
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and the cayenne pepper gave
them this luscious color.
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So now, what we're going to
do is take our chickpeas and
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go ahead and put it on a paper towel
to just soak up some of the excess oil.
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And that'll be just a little bit more
of a reduction of fat from this recipe.
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[MUSIC]
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So here we are and we're going to go
ahead and take these beautiful chickpeas.
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Just kind of pat them a little
bit to soak up excess oil and
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now they're ready for our bowl.
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[MUSIC]
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This is gorgeous.
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This is Mediterranean cooking.
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And here we are.
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Here's our spicy roasted chickpeas snacks.
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Super healthy for you and delicious.
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I'm Fiorella and see you next time.
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[MUSIC]