To start: Fried chickpeas

This holiday season, I’m going to try something new: Recipe blogging! I can’t promise to post regularly or dazzle you with my food photography, but maybe writing about food will be a good incentive to try more home cooking. So, without further ado, snacks:

I am almost always a fan of snacks. I found this recipe in a recent issue of Bon Appétit and decided to make them for a Thanksgiving appetizer. (In the end, I think I was the only one who ate them, but that’s probably just because all the rest of the food got done cooking at about the same time, and chickpeas got nothing on ham and fresh crescent rolls.)

Bon Appétit recommends using smoked paprika, but I didn’t have that (though, for some reason there are three cans of regular paprika in the house). It also calls for two cans of chickpeas, which seemed unwise given that my family sometimes takes a while to warm up to new foods. So, here’s my variation (adjust seasoning to taste):

Fried Chickpeas

1 tsp paprika

½ tsp cayenne pepper

¼ tsp lemon pepper

¼ tsp garlic powder

salt, to taste

olive oil, for frying*

1 can chickpeas (about 15 oz.)

Mix spices together and set aside. Drain and rinse chickpeas; dry well. Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat; add about half of the chickpeas to the skillet and sauté them until lightly golden and crispy. Place in a bowl and sprinkle with about half of the spice mixture; mix and adjust spices as necessary.

They’re a little weird, especially if you don’t cook with much paprika (which my family doesn’t, despite having three cans of it in the house), but strangely addicting. About halfway through frying the second half of my chickpeas, though, I realized these would be great with a garlic-herb spice mixture, so I tossed the other half with this:

¼ tsp thyme

½ tsp garlic powder

½ tsp lemon pepper

salt

Cook as above and season to taste.

These are pretty good on their own, but they’d also make a great topping for a Greek salad. Try them over romaine lettuce with a lemon vinaigrette, topped with kalamata olives and feta. And, just a note, they’re not particularly good after sitting out for a while, so make them just before serving.

Bonus: This recipe probably also works for almonds, pine nuts, cashews, or snack mix, so if you like it, experiment with other ingredients and let me know how it turns out!

*I wasn’t paying attention to the recipe and used canola oil, but olive oil would be much better. Also, I didn’t really measure most of the spices, so use caution when adding large amounts of cayenne and/or garlic.