Late night snack: Vadouvan Roasted Chickpeas

Sometimes you just have to satisfy those cravings - mine are more often for chocolate, I have to admit, but sometimes the savoury tastebuds are crying out for some action and you can't ignore that. This is a pretty easy recipe - and if you have tinned chickpeas in the kitchen (we always do) it'll only take about half an hour, with almost all of that being put-your-feet-up time. You could soak your own chickpeas but that does rather take the convenience factor out of the snack. ;-)

Step one is draining the chickpeas, and then drying them - I dumped them on a clean teatowel and rolled them around a bit. Then you just throw them on a tray (anything with sides, so they can't roll away) and put it in a 180 C oven for a while.

Total cooking time should be around 30 minutes, but you want to take them out and move them around a couple of times during cooking, and after about 10 minutes you also want to add a splash of olive oil and your flavour.

The choice of spice is completely up to you, too - whatever takes your fancy. We have this delicious vadouvan spice from Martin Bosley, which I figured would be perfect, but you could go as simple as salt and pepper, or use chilli flakes or any other spice or mix of spices that tickles your fancy.

Stir them around a bit and pop them back in the oven...

And that's it - how simple was that? Maybe let them cool a little before you eat them. ;-) You can store them in an airtight container for a few days - I can't give an accurate duration as, as with all the yummy things that come from my kitchen these didn't last for very long! Definitely a great little snack - though you do douse them in oil they're still probably better for you than most of the savoury snacks you might buy - and very easy to make.

Some of mine were less crunchy than others - I think because I wasn't overly careful about drying them - but this may or may not matter to you. I quite liked the soft ones. Did they beat chocolate? Well, not quite, but they were tasty. The vadouvan spice mix is yummy but I think next time I'll try a more chilli-oriented flavour; I think that might be better still.