Over the past year or so crunchy chickpeas have been flooding the food blog world.  There’s a good reason for it too! They’re inexpensive, simple to make, delicious, and healthy.  You don’t really need a recipe to make them. I first made these crunchy chickpeas several months ago and I’ve been hooked ever since! I’m always on the lookout for tasty snacks especially ones that can be readily available at any given surge of hunger. A grab on the go or snag a few here and there snack. I keep these around the house and at work nearly always.

The crunchy chickpea snack concept is great because you can modify it to fit your taste and you can make as much or as little as you require.  The batch I make is plenty for the week with enough to share — spicy, and salty. The cooking process takes about an hour depending on your oven and the amount you are baking at once.  The entire process is simple and straight forward but it does require you to stand by in order to mix them up throughout baking.  A good timer is helpful.

Ingredients :

3 cups dried chickpeas
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon cumin powder
1½ – 2 teaspoons hot chili powder or cayenne

I use dried chickpeas to start but you can use canned as well. When using dry chickpeas pre-soak over night or all day.  I’ll usually just set them out to soak in the morning if I want to bake them in the evening. Once soaked for several hours, drain the chickpeas and put them in a pot with new water to boil.  Simmer until cooked.

Strain the chickpeas and pour them onto a clean towel to completely dry and cool off. I believe this step is extremely important, allowing them to air off and cool off helps eliminate a lot of steam which is moisture.  I have noticed a huge difference when I have not allowed them to cool down — the chickpeas have a harder crunch to them which to me is less pleasant to eat.  By eliminating as much moisture before you bake them I believe you get nicer light and crispy texture.

Preheat oven to about 400°

Once the chickpeas are cooked and cooled, place them into a baking dish. I use a 9 x 13 Pyrex lasagna dish.  I would recommend using something with sides because throughout baking the chickpeas will need to be stirred around.  I’ve used a regular baking sheet before and found it pretty difficult to stir them up adequately (while in a hot oven — wear a mitt!) without knocking them off the sides. I also felt that the chickpeas were quicker to burn on a thinner baking sheet — the glass dish just makes more sense to me especially when you are preparing several cups worth of snacks ;)

Season the chickpea directly in the baking dish. Pour oil, sprinkle spices & kosher salt to taste, stir up to evenly coat the batch. Give it a taste before popping it in the oven.

The baking time may vary slightly but will end up to be just over an hour to an hour and a half. Set the timer for 15 minutes and then stir the chickpeas well, repeat an additional 3 times.  This will take about 45 minutes ;) taste test a few for crispiness and keep a closer watch as they finish baking.  I just keep lessening the interval between mixings until they are done to avoid burning them at the end! You’ll know when they’re done because they will be super crispy and delicious; because there are so many chickpeas baking at once, the textures will vary slightly, some may be a little darker (burnt), others a bit lighter (chewy), and the rest of them will be perfectly crispy.

Make these your new savory snack!

Type is becoming blurry, street signs only exist the closer I get, and people with glasses can see better than I… time to get my eyes examined. Aye. In the meantime, I will be eating a lot of this soup, and maybe — just maybe — it will do my little eyes some good; at the very least it will be delicious, inexpensive, and simple to make.

Ingredients used : carrots, ginger, edamame, garlic, pepper powder/cayenne powder, lemon, sour cream, soup stock.

soup for 4

6 cups vegetable stock
4+ cups peeled & chopped carrots
3 cloves chopped garlic
2 tablespoons minced ginger
¼ teaspoon pepper powder or cayenne powder
½ lemon squeezed or juice
1 cup edamame
½ cup sour cream (optional)
olive oil

equipment used : immersion blender or blender & soup pot

Begin with preparing all of the ingredients, peel and mince the garlic & ginger, peel and chop the carrots in to small rounds. Over medium heat in your favorite soup pot splash a little olive oil and include the garlic and ginger.  Saute for a moment until garlic is cooked (don’t burn it), add the carrots and stir.  Pour in the vegetable stock. Turn the heat up and bring to a boil while you add the lemon and pepper/cayenne powder. Return to a simmer and cover until carrots are tender.

When the carrots are fully cooked puree the soup into a smooth consistency with your immersion blender right in the soup pot.  If you don’t have one a regular blender will work fine, however if you are a fan of convenience and/or blended soups & sauces an immersion blender is extremely affordable and totally worth the splurge. By using this tool you avoid having to pour hot liquid into the blender pitcher and back again which also means there is barely a chance for spilling. All good things!

Once your soup is nice and smooth blend in the sour cream, give it a taste and decide if anything needs to be added- for example you may want to add a dash of salt if your base stock wasn’t very salty or flavorful. Last pour in the whole edamame beans, heat soup to the perfect temperature.

Enjoy this soup — practically effortless and super delicous.

I’m continuously on a quest to find ways to prepare squash and pumpkin in a satisfying way. I mentioned in a previous post that I don’t care much for squash mostly because they are most often prepared in a sweet way. However, it is possible to successfully prepare the squash family in a savory way as well. This year we picked our pumpkins mostly for the seeds with no intention to carve.  Unfortunately when we opened our pumpkins we found the most pathetic dilapidated flat seeds I have ever seen ;( — they were completely unusable and severely disappointing to me.  In a moment of panic upon this discovery I feared that we bought and lugged these pumpkins home for no reason… I was peeved. Deep breath, we had to give them purpose — this meant making pumpkin puree!

And with that puree we made bread, muffins, cookies, lasagna, and even gave some away! I would have never had the desire to make my own pumpkin puree if those seeds were any good. I would have happily moved on to roast and devour the seeds without thinking twice about completely wasting the rest of the pumpkin! We made our puree from two pumpkins, which left us with about 16 cups! So of course we had to search for different ways to use it, what the heck could you do with so much puree!? I will forever look at a pumpkin as more than a carve-able surface filled with delicious seeds.

One of the most interesting dishes I discovered was pumpkin lasagna; I have never heard of or thought of it but I was sure ready to try it out.  I got the idea from Food Mayhem, they made it last year as well.  Of course I didn’t follow their exact recipe, I had to cut out anything sweet and add a little more savory to the mix.  It turned out nicely. Lasagna is one of those meals that really doesn’t need many rules. Noodles, sauce, cheese, and anything else baked in layers — that’s basically how it’s done. This is how we made our first pumpkin lasagna! If you’re a sweeter pumpkin eater you should have a look at Food Mayhem’s recipe as well and adjust to your preference.

Ingredients used: pumpkin puree, cayenne powder, cumin powder, ginger, kosher salt, lasagna noodles, fresh ricotta, fresh mozzarella, spinach, tofu, mushrooms.

3 cups plain fresh plain pumpkin puree-
spiced with :
1 tsp pepper powder or cayenne pepper
½ teaspoon cumin powder
½+ teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon fresh finely minced ginger.

lasagna noodles of choice
15 oz fresh ricotta cheese
8+ oz fresh mozzarella
3 cups sliced baby bella mushrooms
2 cups fresh or frozen spinach
½ block of tofu

Begin by spicing up the pumpkin puree; simmer puree in a sauce pot and add ginger, cumin, cayenne powder/pepper powder, and salt to taste.  Cook over lowest heat while you prepare the rest of the ingredients (cut mushrooms, tofu, and spinach).

Preheat oven to 350°

In a 9 x 13 glass baking dish spread a thin layer of pumpkin puree at the very bottom, place the first layer of lasagna noodles and cover with a thin layer of pumpkin puree. Having a bit of puree on the very bottom will help the noodles cook and avoid it from sticking to the bottom of the pan once cooked.

Add tofu; we sliced ours but crumbling it would also be nice. Add a layer of spinach — we used frozen spinach because that’s what we had, we always have frozen spinach on hand because it’s super cheap and a perfect ingredient to add to any sauce, beans, rice, casseroles, lasagna, etc…

Time for another layer of lasagna noodles & of course a layer of pumpkin puree.

Clump fresh ricotta onto the mix and spread it out into an even layer.

Place the sliced mushrooms in an nice even layer and place your last layer of lasagna noodles.

One last layer of pumpkin puree and top with mozzarella! We accidentally bought a fresh mozzarella filled with cream: Burrata — fresh mozzarella filled with cream. When we first chopped into the surprisingly soft and gooey cheese we worried that we made a mistake.  Of course we used it anyway and it didn’t seem to make a difference at all. Once Baked all of the cheese melted together and was delicious as expected.

Cover with tin foil and bake at 350° for 50 min.  Allow time to cool — cut and serve. Now tell me that doesn’t look delicious! Ha — ok, I know, it’s not exactly a beautiful looking dish. But it’s definitely a nice way to remake a traditional lasagna into a seasonal treat…

Sweet, spicy, sour, & salty.
Mango, chili, lime, & salt.

Mango is an extremely tasty fruit on it’s own but by adding a few simple flavors you create a complex taste that is sure to excite you.

Ingredients :: mango, cayenne powder/chili powder, lime, kosher salt.

There are a lot of “right” ways to cut a mango; I have two methods that I use regularly.  The first method is straightforward and obvious.  Use a paring knife to remove the skin, avoid cutting off too much meat.  Start by cutting off a small piece from one of the long ends, turn it on that side to rest tall and begin to slice off the skin.  At the beginning I like to hold it in my hand, but towards the end I like to rest it on the flat spot because sometimes the mango can get very slippery to hold, this helps prevent you from dropping it or squeezing it too much.  Once the skin is removed, make the first cut from the top of the mango along side of the seed.  The seed/pit is in the center of the mango, long and ovular about ¾ of an inch thick, you want to try to get as close the seed as possible in order to get the most meat.  Repeat and cut from the other side.  You’ll be left with two nice hunks of mango meat, cut whatever is left from the shorter side and finish by cutting the pieces to the desired size.

The second method is a little more fun and beautiful looking.

Turn the mango on it’s side to make it tall, cut two pieces from each side of the seed.  Slice a grid into the mango piece without cutting through the skin.  Flip the  skin of the mango to push the meat forward creating a “hedgehog” shape. Use a paring knife or your fingers to remove the pieces. You can also eat the mango directly off the skin.

once you have your bowl of sweet add your sour, spice, and salt to taste!  I usually cut up 2 mangoes, 1 lime, and add the salt and cayenne a little at a time until it’s just right.  stir up and enjoy.  This is one of my absolute favorite flavor combinations!