Canned Vs Dried Chickpeas: How To Roast Each One

Chickpeas are a fiber- and protein-packed legume that, when roasted, make an amazing crunchy snack you can swap potato chips (and other crisp snacks) out for. But when it comes to roasting chickpeas, whether you buy them dry or canned will affect the process of roasting them. While canned ones can be roasted pretty quickly, dried ones take longer and need to be cooked first. How they end up tasting also varies, because dried and canned chickpeas have very different moisture levels and totally different textures. They are the same product but they are not interchangeable; in fact, they need to be handled very differently in order to get the right effect. 

If you have a pantry stocked full of them, you may be wondering whether or not canned chickpeas need to be cooked ahead of roasting. Well, the answer is that they don't because canned chickpeas are already cooked and can actually be eaten straight from the can, making them incredibly convenient. The only caveat is that they come packed in their cooking liquid which needs to be drained. Even after draining they can hold quite a bit of moisture, which is enemy number one in the quest for perfectly crispy roasted chickpeas. Too much moisture will cause them to steam instead of crisp in the oven so make sure you give them a good rinse and allow them to fully dry first.

Dried chickpeas, on the other hand, haven't been cooked in advance and so roasting them is a longer process. They need to be soaked for many hours (or better yet, overnight) before they can even be cooked. If you're tight on time, you can bring them to a boil and then let them soak in boiling water for an hour to rehydrate, which is faster. However, even once they are rehydrated, they still need to be cooked. This requires covering them with fresh water and simmering for about an hour, until tender. Compared to canned chickpeas that simply need to be cracked open, drained, rinsed, and dried before they can be roasted, you have a much longer prep time on your hands when it comes to dried ones. 

However, while dried chickpeas require a lot more love at the start, they reward you with more crunchiness once cooked. That's because the softer that chickpeas are before roasting (aka canned ones), the more creamy they'll be when roasted, whereas firmer ones (aka dried chickpeas) will get a better crunch in the oven. Canned chickpeas don't give you the best texture, but they do have the convenience of being grabbed out of the pantry and roasted as soon as the craving hits. The process of turning chickpeas into a crunchy, salty snack will definitely differ depending on which option you prefer, so it is just a matter of convenience and texture.