Riot and Frolic

a mostly ballroom dance, but also a bunch of other stuff, blog

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I own and rock people’s faces off teaching ballroom dancing at Dancers Studio in St. Paul, MN. My husband and I compete professionally in American style and wrangle eight children in our spare time. I’ve been teaching and competing in ballroom dancing for over 25 years and have lots of opinions on it. I am an expert by any means, but there are quite a few dancers who are better than me and I have a solid knowledge of basic technique, so suck it.

Tis the Season

For roasting junk.  And for seasoning the roasted junk.  And eating the seasoned, roasted junk.  And having the eaten, seasoned, roasted junk be awesome.  

Case in point: roasted chickpeas.  It's one of the delicacies that is sorely missed in the summer months for those of us who have no climate control in our homes and therefore, cannot bear to turn on the oven for a period longer than that which it takes to heat up last night's takeout pizza (because those of us without the air-conditioning also do not posess the microwave oven).

But now it's fall.  And I can turn my oven on.  And put things in it.  Like veggies.  

I love roasted vegetables.  And I don't even like vegetables.  You throw anything in a 400 degree oven for an hour with some olive oil and salt and pepper, though, and I bet I'll eat it.  My goal this season is to try brussel sprouts.  Brussel sprouts.  The butt of all the vegetable jokes.  Kind of like the Polish.  

Okay, so chickpeas (garbanzo beans, makers of hummus) aren't a vegetable.  But their nutritional data reads like one: 1 cup gives you a quarter of your daily iron, 15 grams of protein, and 12 grams of fiber to keep you feeling full until… the cows come home?  One cup seems like a lot, but then I found these guys…

Roasted Chickpeas

Ingredients:

– 1 can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed

– 1 tablespoon or so of olive oil

– salt and pepper to taste

– optional: your favorite spices

Toss all your ingredients in a bowl to lightly coat the little beans with the oily, spicy goodness (I like cumin and cayenne pepper).  Put the chickpeas in a shallow pan or cookie sheet in a 400 degree oven for about an hour, stirring a couple times to prevent burning.  

You'll hear some popping as they roast, but that's okay.  Some of the beans split open as they get hot.  The longer they roast, the crunchier they get. Yum!  

I like eating them within a day or two.  I just discovered they don't keep more than a week, but not before I ate a couple suspiciously-fuzzy ones to confirm it.  I had to be sure!

TRON!
That's for you, Ma.

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One response to “Tis the Season”

  1. Suz Avatar
    Suz

    Ooh, if you want to eat chickpeas in the summer, you can marinate a can of ’em in some olive oil and red wine vinegar with red onion (raw or sautéed), basil, garlic, pepper (coarse ground black is good, red flakes are even better) and salt. Serve cold, over hot rice, if you can stand to use the stove. 🙂 I discovered that one this summer when I was trying to find ways to keep eating my cheap healthy legumes without the “my kitchen is ALREADY 350 degrees, thank you!” factor of the oven, or the continual stirring and simmering of soups and stews. Chickpeas are delicious!

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