Roasted Chickpeas

So on a budget I need something to snack on. In the past when the boy was little I made all sorts of different types of snacks that went in his pack lunches. Crisps, roasted chickpeas, various types of popcorn. I brought dried chickpeas yesterday so after leaving them to soak over night, then boiling them for an hour to cook I have decided to roast them. I’m doing some with a sweet flavouring and some with savoury. Really you can use any flavours you fancy.

Obviously to save time use tinned beans.. I have discovered about 130g dried chickpeas once soaked makes up about the number in a tin.

Rosemary and Salt Roasted Chickpeas

1 tin chickpeas
2 sprigs rosemary chopped
Spray oil
Salt

Preheat the oven to 230 degrees

1. Drain the chickpeas and make sure they are really dry.  Put them in a bowl add the rosemary and about 4 grinds of grinds of salt from your mill. Squirt 4 squirts of oil in and mix up so the chickpeas are coated.

2. Tip them out onto a linned tray and cook in the oven for 20 or 30 mins. Make sure you check them reguarly and move them about so they don’t burn. Your kitchen will soon be full of the smell of rosrmary.

3. Take them out and let them cool.

Honey Roasted Chickpeas

1 tin of chickpeas
2 tbsp runny honey
1 tsp brown sugar
Salt
Spray oil

1. As above drain and dry the chickpeas. Put them in a bowl with the honey, sugar, couple of grinds of salt and 4 squirts of the oil. Mix them all up and make sure they are all coated.

2. Tip them out onto a lined baking tray. Again roast them for 20 or 30 minutes.  Keep an extra eye on these because you are using honey and sugar and they will burn and go black within a blink of the eye.

3. When they have gone golden, they will be darker than the rosemary ones, take them put and leave to cool.

These are cheap and an easy way for me to keep my calorie intake up. 290 ish calories in a tin of chickpeas. And its all natural, no additives.

You can mix them in with some almonds and rasins/sultanas for an extra treat.

Give them a go and let me know what you think.

Whole Roast Masala Chicken

I love my roast dinners. Roast chicken is one of my favourite. This is a scrummy alternative to the normal way of doing a chicken.  I saw it on TV one day wrote the recipe down and have cooked it many times and is a hit with everyone I have given it to.

Its spicy and juicy but you don’t baste it with anything apart from the juices and the marinade, no butter or oil used. Super delicious.

Ingredients

Marinade:

4tbsp lemon juice
3 hot green chillies
2 tbsp finely chopped ginger
2 tbsp chopped garlic
1tsp salt
1 tsp ground coriander
1tsp garam masala

Chicken:
1 whole chicken
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp ground black pepper

Potatoes:
5 medium potatos
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp black pepper
1tsp ground corriander
1tsp cumin
1/2 tsp tumeric
1 tsp chilli powder
Spray oil

Preheat oven to 200 degrees.

1. Skin your chicken. This is very easy and I find if I use a piece of kitchen paper I can get a better grip on the skin to pull it off. Cut the, what I call ankles off and pull the ligaments out of the legs. Once skinned make some deep cuts into the breast and legs.

2. Blend the marinade ingredients together, and rub the all marinade into the chicken. Sprinkle with the pepper and chilli powder over then wrap the chicken up in the foil so completely sealed and chill for 30 mins.

3. Put it in the oven and bake for 1 hour. Then take out and unwrap the foil. Cook for a further 20 mins basting 2 or 3 times until the chicken is .

4. Take it out of the oven wrap the foil back round it and put aside to rest.

Now the potatoes:
Wack the oven up really hot.

1. Peel and cut the potatoes into the size you like them. Par boil them for 10 minutes. Strain them.

2. Put them in a bowl and mix them with the salt and pepper and spray with a the oil.  Put them in the baking tray. Roast at the top of the oven for 20 minutes.

3. Mix the spices in a bowl, take the potatoes out of the oven and toss them in the spices, put them back in the tray and cook until crispy.

Serve with whatever veggies you fancy.

Instead of gravy pour the juices from the pan the chicken was cooked in , into a gravy separator, then you can separate the yummy, lemony, spicey, chickeny juices from the fat, and pour over your chicken.

To be honest I am not totally sure how many calories, but as you have removed the skin and therefore most of the fat before cooking I know its not very high. Also as the potatoes are cooked just using a spray of low fat spray oil they are also a lot lower than your normal roasties, how low depends on how many sprays you use I guess!

Anyway give it a go and let me know what you think!