Crunchy balsamic kissed chickpeas

Tools

• Cookie sheet or pizza pan
• Large mixing bowl

Ingredients

• 1, 15.5 oz can of chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
• Olive oil
• Salt
• Pepper
• 1/2 t balsamic vinegar – don’t overdo it, just needs a few drops
• 1/2 t ground cumin

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Drain and rinse the chickpeas. Pour them onto a paper towel and blot with another paper towel to get them  as dry as possible. Alton Brown’s recipe suggests using a salad spinner to get them even drier, but I don’t find that this is crucial.

In a large bowl, add the chickpeas, a generous amount of olive oil (a few Ts), salt and pepper to taste (note pepper gets spicier when cooked), vinegar (I used local shop, D’Avolio’s 18 Year Balsamic Vinegar), and cumin. Swirl and shake the bowl to coat.

Spread the chickpeas out onto a pizza pan or cookie sheet. Sprinkle liberally with salt (yes, double salt in these instructions). Bake on second oven rack from the top for 15 minutes. Remove the pan/sheet and shake to roll the chickpeas around a bit. Bake another 20 minutes.

After bake time, turn the oven off and let the chickpeas sit in there for at least an hour. They should crisp up nicely but, if they don’t, adjust your oven temp up a tiny bit next time.

These don’t keep well, they get soft, so make what you can eat.