Sunday, November 13, 2011

Spicy Chickpea Snack






I am used to Italian cats eating almost anything, but New Zealand cats seem to be fussier, so I was very surprised when Marameo jumped on the bench to grab the cooked chickpeas that I was rinsing. I had to give her some, she could not wait, and ate them all. I gave them seconds and then she stopped bothering me. Strange cat! 

With my remaining chickpeas, I wanted to make a spicy snack: this one from the blog of Araba Felice.



Smoked Paprika Chickpea Snack




The original recipe calls for:
400 g can of chickpeas,
1 tbsp flour
1 tsp sweet paprika, or your favourite spice (in my variation I used smoked paprika instead)
1 tsp salt, about
2-3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
I also added a few cumin seeds.




Rinse and pat dry the chickpeas, and mix with the other dried ingredients until the chickpeas are nicely coated. At this point I left the chickpeas in the bowl for about 30 minutes so that the flour and spices could really get 'caked' around each chickpea.


Pour the olive oil on a baking tray (no baking paper), add the chickpeas and roll them around so that they are not one on top of the other. Bake at 200°C, rolling them on the tray again from time to time to make sure that they get crispy all over. The original recipe says 30 minutes, but my canned chickpeas were quite small, I though, so 20 minutes were sufficient. Serve as a snack, warm or even cold (I think that they will go well with beer so I will make them again when my husband is back!)


Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

5 comments:

  1. Baked chickpeas are so fun to much on. I wish my cat appreciated them!

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  2. A snack that cats like and that goes well with beer? What could be better than that?!

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  3. These chick peas look great. I never liked chickpeas till I found out they're high in protein and pound for pound one of the best sources of fiber. Really helps the digestive system.

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  4. Thanks for putting me onto the idea of feeding my cats chick peas, Alessandra. I tried them on one or two yesterday and they went down a storm -- who would've thought? Tried them on some kusherie tonight and they went for that too, and these two were always so fussy before. Ciao.

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