i’ll roast you, chickpea!

Dark chocolate, red wine, a good hefeweizen, butter, butter ON toast, a slice of pie, ice cream, ice cream CAKE…what’s the saying?

“To much of a good thing is bad”

Maybe true, maybe not, it depends right? Hello! Can one have too much hugging? Too much laughter? Last time I checked no one died from laughing too much. But, I guess it applies to some things.

Hummus. It happened to me. I really love hummus, especially the spicy kind but I got a bit hummus’d out recently. Sad, right?! I didn’t think the day would come; seriously, I grew up on hummus! Nevertheless, my hummus slump will pass, I’ll probably be back on it next week! In the mean time, I need some chickpea, not the hummus form…in another form!

I was looking for something untraditional as it applied to the standard hummus varieties. Well, I love Indian food and Moroccan food. I thought, why not yellow curry and cinnamon, both of which is either in Indian cuisine or Moroccan cuisine. I think I found a winner-snack and I think you’ll like it too.

Say “Hello” to my oven-roasted chickpeas tossed in yellow curry powder and cinnamon. Toasty, crunchy, warm-tasting and the antithesis of boring. If you don’t feel like having popcorn movie night-after-movie night, then have some roasted chickpeas. Need to catch up on the Oscar noms? How about pop-in a film or two and roast some chickpeas, heck ya! Chickpeas are packed with good things for your body. Curry and cinnamon? Well, they’re all-stars too. Allow me to elaborate…

Nutritional perks –

Chickpeas – very low in cholesterol. good source of dietary fiber, Vitamin B6 and folate
Cinnamon – good source of Vitamin K and iron. very good course of dietary fiber and calcium
Curry powder – good source of Vitamin B6, folate and magnesium. very good source of dietary fiber, Vitamin E and K, iron and manganese.

Oven Roasted Chickpeas tossed in Curry Powder & Cinnamon
– 8 oz canned chickpeas (i.e. garbanzo beans), drained and rinsed. I prefer the no-salt added kind. If you want more than 8 oz, by all means, go for it!
– Nonstick cooking spray. I used extra virgin olive oil cooking spray.
– 1 tsp yellow curry powder
– 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

You can decide on the curry to cinnamon ratio. If you want more cinnamon then add more and vice-versa.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a baking sheet with the nonstick cooking spray.

Spread chickpeas on a baking sheet and spritz some cooking spray on those hotties.

Mix the curry powder and cinnamon and sprinkle on top of the chickpeas. Roll the chickpeas around so that all are covered in the powerdy goodness.

Roast for 45-50 minutes. Stir the chickpeas around every 10-15 minutes.

Remove from oven, allow to cool a bit and enjoy this good and good for you, snack! Isn’t it so nice to enjoy the chickpea in a form other than hummus or on top of a salad? I think so.

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