Roasted Chickpeas with Thai Peanut Butter Sauce

Crunchy Goodness with a Little Bit of Sweet Heat

I recently tried roasted chickpeas for the first time, courtesy of a wonderful lady we all fondly call "Aunt Sally". While at a Christmas ornament swap, I tasted all three of the flavored snacks. Aunt Sally had made a wonderful ranch/parmesan and this sticky honey that caramelized the crunchy tidbits. There was a third flavor that I can't recall right now but they were all very addictive. I kept thinking about how I was going to make some myself.

Today was the perfect day to start my first experiment. We are all awaiting the blizzard to end all blizzards based on everything in the media and I had to go to the store for some staples today anyways. Soup had sounded appealing and with two different kinds on simmering all day on the stove (Chicken and Walkabout) there was plenty of time to do other things in the kitchen.

I started with two cans of chickpeas, draining them and then letting them dry. I stuck them in a roaster pan, lined with paper towels and then covered them with a couple of more sheets and let them sit for about an hour. I then moved them around with the paper towel and rubbed them dry again before placing them in a glass Pyrex dish. Some of the outer coatings, shells, came off which probably helped the coating to stick when I covered them.


While they were drying, I combined natural peanut butter, Thai red chili paste, brown sugar, and some cayenne pepper in a saucepan, tasting it to get it to the right level of hot and sweet. In the end, I used about 1/2 cup of peanut butter, 1/4 cup of brown sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of the paste, and a 1/4 teaspoon of the pepper. It made enough sauce for 4 cans of chickpeas in all reality. Since chickpeas are really cheap next time I will make more.

I added about two tablespoons of good olive oil to the Pryex containing the chickpeas.I tossed them to make sure they all got a dose of the oil and then placed them in the oven at 425 degrees for a few minutes to get them hot before I covered them with the sauce. I figured because the peanut butter was thick, to really coat them they had to be warm. I then stirred in the  peanut butter sauce while it was hot, and set the timer for 15 minutes.


After fifteen minutes at 425, I tossed them again to that they were evenly coated, and let them roast for another fifteen minutes. In total they spent about 5 minutes in the oven without the sauce, and then a half hour with the peanut butter. I tossed them once more as they cooled. The sauce was thickly coating each bean and it took about fifteen minutes or so before I transferred them to a Pyrex bowl for safe keeping. They were just the right combination of hot and spicy but sweet. Good stuff.

Crunchy Chickpeas with Thai Peanut Butter Recipe

2 cans of chickpeas, a.k.a. garbanzo beans, drained and dried
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1/2 cup of natural peanut butter (I used creamy)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp. Thai red curry paste
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper

Place dried chickpeas in a pyrex pan or lined cookie sheet and toss with olive oil. Place in preheated oven at 425 degrees for about 5 minutes. In the meantime, combine ingredients for the sauce in a pan and stir until combined. Toss the warm chickpeas with the sauce and roast for 15 minutes. Toss and roast another 15 minutes, for a total of 30 with the sauce.

Remove from oven and toss before allowing to cool. Transfer to a dish for eating!