Healthy Snack Wednesday: Crispy Chickpeas and Dave Eats Giveaway!

The original goal of Healthy Snack Wednesdays was to create snacks that you could actually bring to work with you, or enjoy on the go. I don’t know about you, but around 10:30am and 2:30 pm, I always need a little something to revive me.

A few months back, recipes for baked chickpeas started flying all over the blogosphere, and I thought…wow, I should try that. But then I didn’t. A few weeks later I was searching for ways to make salt and vinegar potato chip seasoning, and came across salt and vinegar chickpeas. It was a sign from God. My time to bake some chickpeas had come!

I wanted to try a regular batch before I dove into the likes of vinegar. So I pulled out my Dave Eats Hot Tabo Salt, some Habanero powder and my new favorite hot pepper sauce and got to mixing! The result was a perfect, crunchy, portable, slightly salty snack! I kept the jar on my desk for those emergency snack breaks, and it did the job for almost 2 weeks! Which not only makes it healthy, but very economical!

This snack has nutrition like you can’t believe! 1/2 cup of chickpeas packs 130 calories, 2 grams of fat, 6 grams of fiber and 8 grams of protein!! That’s what I call a power snack!

A few tips I learned along the way:

• Make sure chickpeas cool ALL THE WAY before sealing them
• Success is much more likely if you use dried chickpeas as opposed to canned chickpeas. Some times the canned beans are much thicker and have a chlorene-like taste
• Experiment with seasoning! Curried chickpeas, sure! Cinnamon sugar chickpeas, why not? These can be great in any flavor you create!

With the hundreds of possible flavors you can create for the crispy chickpeas, I have to insist you try the one’s with Dave’s Tabo Salt. They were absolutely perfect! And I am going to help you do just that! Dave is sponsoring today’s HSW post with a little giveaway. One winner will be chosen at random to receive a sample pack of all Dave’s seasonings! You can thank me later…

To Enter:

• Mandatory Entry: Head to DaveEats.com, peruse their products, and tell me which flavor seasoning you would most like to try by leaving a comment on this post!
• Bonus Entry: Tweet about this contest – “I want to win @DaveEatsDotCom seasonings from @renh77 http://wp.me/pVsto-my“
• Bonus Entry: Follow @DaveEatsDotCom, leave me a comment saying you did so
• Bonus Entry: Become a fan of Eat.Live.Blog on Facebook and leave me a comment saying you did so

Fine Print: Only US residents with a US mailing address may enter. Winner will be chosen using Random.org on Monday, April 25, 2011. All entries must be in by the time of the drawing. Once the winner has been drawn, it is the responsibility of Dave Eats to mail the winner their prize. Prize has no cash value.

Crispy Chickpeas Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 lb dried chickpeas (soaked according to bag’s instructions)
• Seasonings of your choice ( I used several dashes of hot sauce, Dave’s Hot Tabo Salt & Habanero powder)

Directions

• Cover your pre-soaked chickpeas with water plus 2 inches (use distilled white vinegar if making salt & vinegar chickpeas) in a saucepan
• Bring to boil, cover and reduce to a simmer
• Simmer for 1.5 hours, until al dente (just a tad bit firm to the bite)
• Preheat oven to 350 and line a baking sheet with parchment paper
• Drain chickpeas
• Place chickpeas in a mixing bowl
• Coat with your seasonings (just salt if making salt & vinegar chickpeas)
• Place beans on your baking sheet in a single layer (you will probably have to bake in 2 batches)
• Place on middle rack of the oven
• Bake for 20 minutes and then stir beans. Make sure they go back into a single layer
• Bake for 20 more minutes and stir again.
• Bake for 10 more minutes, checking them every 3 minutes or so.
• Chickpeas are ready when they are crispy all the way through. Not all of them will get there at the same time. When most of them are crispy through, remove them from the oven and allow them to cool (they taste REALLY good hot, so start snacking!). Once they have cooled completely, place them in an air-tight container. The beans that were not all the way crispy will become crispy after a few days in the jar….if they make it that long!