Recipe | Spicy Roast Chickpeas

Chickpeas are no modern invention. In fact, Apicius, ancient Rome’s famous culinary writer, wrote a recipe for roasted chickpeas baked in olive oil and served with white wine, anchovy paste and pepper. Do feel free to try his version as well, but here’s our crunchy version. They’re great snacks to have with drinks, or add a few to your lunchbox.

Makes 1 jar

2 x 400g cans of chickpeas
2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp za’atar
1 tsp sumac

1 Drain the chickpeas and make sure they’re absolutely dry (a clean tea towel works well for this and it’s essential if you want the chickpeas to be really crispy). If you have time, leave them in a sieve for 30 mins to release any excess moisture.

2 Preheat the oven to 200C/ Fan 180C/Gas 6. Toss the dried chickpeas in the olive oil and sea salt and tip onto a baking tray in a single layer. Place in the centre of the oven for 20-30 mins, shaking every 10 mins, until they’re brown and crispy.

3 Once roasted, sprinkle with the spices to fully coat, turn the oven off, then put the tray of chickpeas back in the oven to cool. This dehydrates them and results in a super crispy chickpea. When they’re completely cold, store in a sealed jar and eat within 3 days.

Cook’s Note: You can play around with other spice combinations. For a sweet and spicy version, combine ¼ tsp each of garlic salt, chilli powder, cumin, salt and black pepper, plus 1 tbsp brown sugar.

The recipe and photography above are from our feature Magic Beans by Kirstie Young, which is all about the not-so-humble chickpea. You can find the rest of the recipes in our April issue. They include Farinata with Fennel, Chicory & Walnuts, Falafel Burgers with Quick Pickles, Chana Masala with Nigella & Herby Rice, and Aquafaba Meringues with Hibiscus Pears.

Buy this month's The Simple Things - buy, download or subscribe

More snacks to make…

More from our April issue…

Recipe | Sticky Sloe and Nut Clusters

These snacks are gooey, sweet, sticky, crunchy… and hard not to finish all in one sitting.

We were inspired to some sweet and slow cooking by the sloe recipes in our feature Let it Sloe in our November issue. It included Sloe Syrup, Sloe Gin Chocolate Cake and a Sloe Treacle Tart. But these munchy Sticky Sloe and Nut Clusters were too good not to share. Find the rest of the recipes in our November issue…

Makes 36

40ml rapeseed oil
140g demerara or soft brown sugar
200g sticky sloes, pitted
70g plain flour
1 heaped tsp cornflour
150g almonds or hazelnuts, roughly chopped

1 Preheat the oven to 200C/Fan 180C/Gas 6 and line a large baking tray (30 x 40cm) with baking paper.

2 In a bowl, mix the oil and sugar, plus 1 teaspoon of water and the sticky sloes. Stir, then add the flour, cornflour and nuts and stir well to combine.

3 Make the clusters by distributing heaped teaspoons of the mixture evenly across the baking tray, with enough space between them for the mixture to spread out a little.

4 Bake for approximately 12 mins, or until the clusters are bubbling and dark brown at the edges. Remove from the oven immediately and leave for 5 mins before gently transferring from the tray to a cooling rack.

Cook’s note: These can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week.

Taken from Wild and Sweet by Rachel Lambert (Hoxton Mini Press) Photography: Elliott White

Buy this month's The Simple Things - buy, download or subscribe

More fun with foraged foods…

More from our blog…

Recipe | Sesame Prawn Toasts

Moreish, prawnish and very celebratory, these tasty triangles will get a feast started on the right foot

Chinese New Year begins on Friday February 12th this year and ends with the Lantern Festival on the 26th, and is a celebration of the arrival of Spring as well as moving into a new calendar year. If you’re marking the start of Chinese New Year this weekend why not make these crispy and very moreish sesame prawn toasts as part of the feast? They’re a bit of effort but well worth it.

Serves 4

200g prawns (if using frozen, defrost in the fridge overnight then pat dry; de-vein and de-shell , if necessary)
1 tsp finely-grated ginger
1 garlic clove, roughly chopped
1 egg white
2 spring onions, finely chopped
1 tsp light soy sauce
¼ tsp each of salt and pepper
3 pieces of thick sliced white bread, each cut into 4 triangles
100g sesame seeds (on a plate)
Groundnut or sunflower oil for shallow frying
Chopped coriander, soy or sweet chilli sauce for serving

1 Blitz the prawns, ginger, garlic, egg white, spring onions, soy sauce, salt and pepper in a food processor until you have a thick paste.
2 Spread the blitzed prawn paste on one side of each triangle of bread.
3 Gently press the prawn paste side of each triangle into the sesame seeds on a plate. Set aside for frying.
4 Heat 2-3cm of oil in a wok or frying pan over a high heat. Make sure it's hot, but not so hot it's smoking. Drop small piece of bread into the oil – if it bubbles straight away, the oil is ready.
5 Place two of the triangles (prawn and sesame seed side facing down) in the oil and cook for 1-2 mins, or until the sesame seeds are golden. Fry one or two slices at a time or the oil temperature will drop and you may end up with soggy prawn toasts!
6 Turn the toast over and cook for a further 1 min. Remove and place on kitchen roll to soak up any excess oil. Repeat with the remaining triangles.
7 Serve whilst hot with a sprinkling of chopped coriander and soy sauce or a sweet chilli sauce for dipping.

Cook’s note: If you don't eat them all, let them cool, then freeze in an airtight container. To reheat, defrost in the fridge overnight and oven bake at 200C/Fan 180C/Gas 6 for 7-8 mins, or until piping hot throughout.

This recipe is part of our Feast of Good Fortune menu to mark the start of the Year of the Ox in our February issue. You can find the rest of the recipes, including potstickers and steamed fish, from page 34.

Buy this month's The Simple Things - buy, download or subscribe

More from our February issue…

More feasts from our Gathering pages…

Words | backronyms and snackronyms

Some word-related fun to take with you on a winter walk..

A trail mix is comfort food at its most smug, and we’re right behind that. While you’re popping delicious gem-sized pieces of colourful dried fruits and nuts into your mouth (and maybe some chocolate in there, too) you can also feel the glow of fuelling your body with something healthy and homemade. 

There’s something about the words ‘trail mix’ that make you feel like you could face anything on a winter walk. Doesn’t the idea of being on a ‘trail’ rather than just a bit of a ramble make you feel like you are striding out with purpose? 

While we were putting together our On The Trail feature for our January issue, we discovered, to our delight, that there are several other even better names for trail mix. 

In North America, trail mix is often known as ‘gorp’, probably derived from the early 20th century term ‘to gorp’ or ‘to eat greedily’. Since then, however, gorp has become an acronym for Good Old Raisins and Peanuts or sometimes, more specifically, Granola, Oats, Raisins, Peanuts. It’s what’s known as a ‘backronym’: an acronym that was created to fit a word after the event, rather than a word that was created as an acronym. 

In Australia, trail mix is known as ‘scroggin’, a 1940s word which later came to stand for Sultanas, Chocolate, Raisins, Orange peel, Ginger, Glucose (sugar), Imagination (whatever you like), Nuts. Others, insist it stands for Sultanas, Chocolate, Raisins, Other Good thinGs Including Nuts.

Next time we head out on a winter walk we are definitely going to be making some of the trail mix recipes featured in our January issue and pictured above. Trail Mix is a very fine snack - Something Nice And Comforting (from the) Kitchen.

The trail mix recipes and warming soups for a winter walk featured in our January issue were taken from Delicious Wintertime: The Cookbook for Cold Weather Adventures by Markus Sӓmmer (Gestalten).

Buy this month's The Simple Things - buy, download or subscribe

More from our January issue…

More wonderful walks…