Spicy Garlic Chickpeas

A can of chickpeas is the cheapest crunchy snack in the shop, provided you get the water out of them first. Skip that step and you steam them into little beige marbles. Do it properly and you get something between a corn nut and a roasted peanut, with a shell that shatters.

This takes twenty minutes and needs a hot oven, a sheet pan, and a clean tea towel.

What you need

• 1 can (400g) chickpeas, drained
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, grated
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 1/2 tsp cayenne, more if you want it to hurt
• 3/4 tsp flaky sea salt, plus more to finish

Method

1. Heat the oven to 220C / 425F. Put the sheet pan in while it heats. A cold pan is the second most common reason these come out soft.
2. Drain the chickpeas and tip them onto a tea towel. Roll them around until they squeak and look dull rather than shiny. Any loose skins that come off, throw away. This is the step that matters.
3. Toss the dry chickpeas with the oil, paprika, cayenne and salt. Hold the garlic back for now, or it burns.
4. Tip them onto the hot pan in one layer. They should hiss. Roast 18 to 22 minutes, shaking the pan twice.
5. At 15 minutes, stir the grated garlic through and finish the last few minutes. The garlic toasts rather than scorches.
6. Out of the oven, hit them with more flaky salt while they are still hot enough to steam.

How to tell they are done

Bite one. If it gives before it cracks, they need another three minutes. They crisp further as they cool, so pull them just before you think they are ready.

What goes wrong

They went soft by evening. They will. These are a same-day snack. Stored in a sealed jar they turn chewy overnight, and no amount of reheating fully brings them back.

They are bitter. The garlic went in too early and burned. Fifteen minutes, not zero.

They exploded. A few always do. It is steam leaving. If most of them burst, they were still wet going in.

Worth doing

Twenty minutes, ingredients you probably have, and a snack that costs about the same as a bag of crisps but eats like something you made on purpose. The only real cost is that they do not keep, which is either a flaw or a feature depending on how many people are in the house.