Today I wanted to celebrate my love of spicy food with some homemade, wasabi roasted chickpeas.
Someone told me once that spice was addictive. You start out liking food just a little bit spicy, and over the years you need spicier and spicier dishes to get your fix. I think I believe that. At least in my experience, I feel like it's true. At this point, when I add hot sauce to a plate of food, folks who don't know me think the amount was an accident. It wasn't.
These wasabi roasted chickpeas aren't as atomically spicy as some of the foods I like, but they're nostalgic to me. Even as a kid, I loved snacking on spicy, crunchy wasabi peas. When I saw today's Vegan Mofo writing prompt, Share Your Favorite Cuisine, this dish sprang immediately to mind.
More roasted chickpea recipes: Sriracha Roasted Chickpeas, Ranch Roasted Chickpeas
Does "spicy food" count as a cuisine? I hope so! Whether it's India, Thai, Japanese, or more conventional American type food, I like it all better doused in hot sauce.
Choosing Wasabi Powder
My friend Liz and I kind of collaborated on this recipe. She's wanting to make her own wasabi peas. In her research, she read that heating wasabi kills its heat. That is why you don't want really high quality wasabi powder for this recipe. Choose one that has mustard powder in it, as well. I used Eden Wasabi Powder, which contains wasabi, mustard powder, and horseradish.
I can't vouch for the results with other wasabi powders, so let me know if you branch out!
This recipe is adapted from one that my coworker Jeannie Moulton shared long ago on Eat Drink Better. Her recipe was for wasabi peanuts, and it used egg as the binder. I thought it would be super fun to convert her recipe to one for roasted chickpeas and use aquafaba from the beans as the egg replacer. Something about that seemed super fun to me. I guess whisking aquafaba is how I party these days?
📖 Recipe
Wasabi Roasted Chickpeas
Ingredients
- 1 15 ounce can chickpeas - Drain, but save the liquid from the can.
- 3 tablespoons aquafaba
- 2 tablespoons wasabi powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch - or potato starch
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400F.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a Silpat, and spread the chickpeas onto the sheet in a single layer. Bake for 35 minutes. Remove from the oven, set aside, and reduce the oven temp to 200F.
- When the chickpeas are done baking at 400F, whisk the chickpea liquid with a fork in a large bowl until it becomes foamy. Add chickpeas and toss to coat with the whipped chickpea liquid, then drain off the excess liquid in a colander.
- Stir together wasabi powder, salt, sugar, and cornstarch in a small bowl.
- Transfer the chickpeas back to the large bowl, and toss to coat with the wasabi mixture.
- Spread chickpeas on baking sheet in a single layer, and bake for 20 more minutes.
Jessica
Can this be something made/converted to use a dehydrator?
Becky Striepe
You probably could, but I'm not certain what the time/temp would be for that, since I haven't tested it. You might look up a dehydrator recipe and use my ingredients with their directions to see how it shakes out, though!
Stephanie
Ok so i assumed i add the sugar to the aquafaba? like with whipped cream? i also added some to the wasabi dry mixture just in case it's to cut the salt and wasabi? Thanks! Looking forward to see how this turns out. I think in the directions, i would only add that whipping will still seem smooth and when you let it set up it will peak. Thanks!
Becky Striepe
You add the sugar with the dry ingredients. Thank you for letting me know I missed it!
Rick
I've been buying Daulspice Japanese Wasabi powder from Amazon - it's a lot cheaper than the Eden and listed as 100% pure wasabi. I've been having it with sushi and seared tuna and it's way better than other brands I've tried (haven't tried the Eden yet).
Becky Striepe
Ooh I bet that will work great in this recipe!
Victoria Payne
When do you add the sugar? To the dry ingredients?
Becky Striepe
Yes!
Anonymous
Delish!!! Thanks!
Tracy
If you rinse and pat the chickpeas dry with paper towels before first trip to the oven, they will turn out crispier.
Jay
Is parchment paper on the baking sheet when the coated chickpeas are returned to it?
Becky Striepe
Yes, you should leave it on there.
Kerry Ann
Are the chickpeas supposed to be rinsed as well as drained? The aquafaba is really thick and is tuck to the chipeas pretty well in my can.
Becky Striepe
I do not rinse them. The aquafaba will act like egg whites and help the coating stick!
Hannah
Ooooh, making these with chickpeas is brilliant! I love spice too, and I think it totally counts :)
Becky Striepe
I appreciate your support! Haha
Elaine
Are these supposed to be crunchy? Mine are soft, even after baking an extra 10 minutes at 200 degrees.
Becky Striepe
Oh weird! They should be crunchy. I wonder what happened!
Elaine
The only thing I can think of is I whipped the aquafaba to much. It was very frothy and there wasn't anything to drain. The taste is good so I'll have to try them again. Another thing, I wasn't sure if the sugar was a mistake since you have it in the ingredients but not in the directions.
Becky Striepe
Oh whoops! No, sugar should totally be in the directions. That's interesting about the whipping! If you try again, let me know if less whipping works. I can add that to the instructions to help other folks!
Jenn
Mine are soft too.
I'm wondering if it's the altitude?
I baked mine extra long.
Becky Striepe
It could be! How long did you bake?