Lightly Spiced Easy Crispy Chickpeas

These spiced & roasted crispy chickpeas take just a few minutes of prep and are a delicious healthy snack, a salad and soup topper, and an addition to a whole variety of dishes!

I love chickpeas, and they are honestly such a versatile ingredient that can be added to snacks, meals, and even dessert. Whether they’re mashed into hummus or falafel, included into hearty stews or now roasted into delicious crispy chickpeas with a variety of seasonings. These baked chickpeas are crispy and perfect for a snack or adding to a variety of meals.

Stick by me, and you’ll be seeing a lot of new chickpea recipes soon, alongside my already rather long list. Chickpeas are just such an easy addition to meals and help pack in protein and flavor. These crispy chickpeas can actually be flavored in a variety of ways – including sweet or savory. Within this post, I’ll go through how to roast chickpeas and some tips to getting them right every time.

Getting the perfect ‘crisp’ factor (and keeping it), for ‘crispy’ chickpeas can be a bit of a struggle – and when I say crispy, I mean crispy! But I think I’ve got it right now, after a few experiments. To help you, there are several ‘tips and tricks’ too. That way you have a healthier, great snack alternative to ‘crips/potato chips’, for those who love all things savory.

From how you bake them, season them, and store them – all of these factors can affect how crispy your baked chickpeas end up being. I think I now have the perfect (but simple!) combo, to get great results every. Single. Time.

Tips & Variations Of The Recipe

The Crisp Factor: The key to getting perfectly crispy chickpeas every single time? Make sure that they are thoroughly dry after cooking (or draining and rinsing from a can). Any extra moisture can lead to ‘chewy’, rather than crispy chickpeas.

Storing them: Another critical factor to keep their crunch. Store your chickpeas in a ‘loosely covered’ container at room temperature – the airflow will help to keep them crispy. Air-tight containers and/or fridge storage will lead to chewy/mushy chickpeas.

Top Tip* One of the best things I can probably say is that I’ve found that different brands of tinned chickpeas vs cooked at home from dry chickpeas will need slightly different times etc. Especially due to size differences. The best thing is to check on the chickpeas after 30-35 minutes, then continue to bake for longer, if needed – they can quickly go from ‘just right’ to burnt.

However, if you don’t roast them for long enough, to begin with, then this will also make them get chewy faster.

Variations & Additional Notes

Spices: Baked chickpeas can be flavored 101 different ways, and even the spice blend I suggest can be tweaked so specific flavors dominate etc. If I want crispy chickpeas that are relatively neutral, then I’ll often just use some salt and garlic powder, with the occasional addition of nutritional yeast. The recipe on this page is my current favorite spice blend go-to.

Additional notes: I’ve heard of friends that go through extra steps to getting crispy chickpeas that I’ve never had to. This includes peeling the skins and only adding the seasonings towards the end of the bake time etc. I can’t speak to my experience on that as I’ve never had issues – however, if you are still having some crispy issues after using this recipe, then those may be avenues to explore.

How To Serve The Crispy Chickpeas

As I said above, these chickpeas are great as a healthy snack or a part of various meals. They add a lovely crunch to a whole variety of dishes and can be used as an alternative to croutons. For example, within this Simple quinoa salad with walnuts and avocado or this Mexican Inspired Salad in A Jar Recipe or on top of this Coconut Curry Pumpkin Soup or Thai Inspired Vegan Green Pea Soup.

You can also mix some into this Simple Fatteh (Pita with Herby Chickpeas and Yogurt) (this chickpea recipe will be boosted with a mix of the plain and baked chickpeas) or Zoodles With Home-made Pistachio Pesto, and/or use as part of a filling for these Rainbow Vegan Tacos or Mediterranean Vegetable Vegan Lettuce Wraps.

And that’s just a few off the top of my head. So, as you can see, there’s definitely no shortage for ways to use these crispy flavor bombs!

The Crunchy Roasted Chickpeas Snack How-To

Needed

• Cooked chickpeas
• Turmeric powder, ginger powder, cayenne pepper (or chili powder), sea salt, and pepper
• Olive oil

The Steps

The first step is to cook your dried chickpeas* – I explain in detail how to do this in the post How To Prep, Cook And Freeze Dried Chickpeas. This doesn’t even need to be done directly before making these baked chickpeas as cooked chickpeas will store in the fridge/freezer for long periods. I like to always have some, in portions in my freezer that I thaw before going ahead with this recipe.

Once cooked (or thawed), make sure to thoroughly dry the chickpeas with a clean tea towel or kitchen towel.**

* If using tinned chickpeas then drain and rinse them, then pat dry thoroughly. 

** As a quick ‘cheat’ you can always place your plain chickpeas in the oven as it’s preheating for around 5-10 minutes and this will help to dry roast them and dry them before mixing with the herbs/spices and oil. 

Preheat the oven to 170ºC. Next, combine all the spices in a large bowl and mix. If you know that you prefer certain flavors over others then feel free to tweak the amounts.

Add the olive oil to the spice blend and mix it again.

Finally, add the cooked chickpeas to the mix. Make sure that they are all well covered.

How To Roast Chickpeas

Next, place the spice coated chickpeas on a baking sheet in a single layer. If needed, use two trays; otherwise, this can affect how crispy they’ll end up being.

Bake in the preheated oven at 170ºC for about 40-45 minutes. Turn halfway through – or at least jostle them about by shaking the pan, however turning will receive better results.

Check the results after around 30 minutes by taking one out of the oven and leaving to cool slightly. Continue to bake, as needed, until crispy. For me this is usually between 40-45 minutes, however, this can vary of the chickpea size, brand (if using tinned), oven, etc.

If you decide to leave the chickpeas in the oven to cool down for a while, then make sure that the oven door is slightly open. If not, then it can steam up inside and affect the crisp-factor.

How To Store

Once cooked leave them to cool down completely before transferring to another container. Store at room temperature within a container that is only loosely covered to maintain optimal crunch levels.

While they are best within the first couple of days, the longest I have gone with them in my jar is 2.5 weeks and they’ve maintained their crunch and been delicious. I would say that, in general, I’d aim to keep them for around 1 – 1.5 weeks though.

If you give this recipe a try, then let me know your thoughts in the comments. If you love this recipe as much as I do and want to show me your recreations – you can tag me on Instagram @Alphafoodie.