VEGAN RECIPE REVIEW: Dill Pickle Roasted Chickpeas

For this review, I knew I wanted to choose a recipe that called for everyday ingredients--none of the "weird" vegan foods I've been hooked on lately ;)

Eli and I are OBSESSED with anything that is dill pickle flavored (including pickles themselves). Years and years ago, we bonded over a plate of fried pickles and have been pickle buddies ever since. So whenever I see something dill pickle flavored, Eli and I just have to try it. (They aren't vegan, but I used to love Dill Pickle Soup and Dill Pickle Pizza!)

Eli and I both also have a problem with snacking. We snack too much and on too much junk food. Since I've been discovering all the benefits of fiber over the past year, I thought that making these Dill Pickle Roasted Chickpeas would be a good snacking solution--lots of fiber + dill pickle flavor? Yes, please!

The recipe is incredibly simple, to the point where I wondered if it even "counted" as a recipe--but like I said, no uncommon ingredients! And hey--dill pickles.

I can't remember where I first found this recipe, but I would bet my life it was on Pinterest. Regardless, the recipe can be found at Three Olives Branch. (I'll link to it again at the end of the post.)

First, the ingredients:

Chickpeas, dill pickle juice (a couple of tablespoons of brine from a jar of pickles), olive oil, salt, and dried dill weed.

First, you just preheat the oven to 400 F. The recipe lists 350 F for 35-40 minutes, but there is a note on the recipe that says if you want crispier chickpeas, then you can bake them at 400 F for 30 minutes instead. I chose to do that.

Then, I put parchment on a large baking sheet. Parchment paper is seriously the BEST invention ever. Until recently, I had absolutely no idea just how well it works for baking things without having them stick to the pan. Better than any silicone mat, foil with any sort of oil/grease, or non-stick pan. I especially love it for making tofu! Anyway, I lined a baking sheet with parchment paper.

To prepare the chickpeas for roasting, drain and rinse them. I actually saved the "juice" from the cans (it's the cooking liquid from the beans, called aquafaba, and I only recently learned this when making vegan pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving). This is what it looks like and how much I got from two cans:

I've seen it called for in other recipes, but unless you want to open a can of chickpeas to use just a little of the aquafaba, you're out of luck. In vegan cooking, aquafaba is frequently used to replace egg whites. So, I poured the aquafaba into an ice cube tray and stuck it in the freezer--that way, I will be able to use just a little at a time whenever needed.

The recipe states you can peel the chickpeas if you like, but leaving the skins on "gives them a little extra crunch". I'm all about extra crunch, so I left them on.

Once I drained and rinsed the chickpeas, I spread them onto a clean towel to dry off (per the instructions on the recipe). I put another towel on top and then very gently patted the chickpeas in order to dry them the best I could.

While those are drying, you just combine the pickle juice, olive oil, and salt in a small mixing bowl.

After about 10 minutes under the towel, the chickpeas looked relatively dry to me.

I poured them into the bowl with the pickle juice and tossed them in the dressing, making sure they were coated well. As you can see a lot of the skins fell right off. I wish they came off that easily when I wanted them to!

Once they are coated with the dressing, spread them out on the prepared baking sheet.

I left the skins in there, hoping they'd get super crunchy ;)

I roasted at 400 F for 30 minutes, per the recipe instructions. From there, you are supposed to turn off the oven and just let them sit there to finish drying out, for another 30 minutes or so. First, I took a quick picture of what they looked like after 30 minutes of roasting:

I slid them back into the oven, then turned the oven off. I put away some laundry and did the dishes while I waited, and then after about 30 more minutes, I pulled them out of the oven again. They'd definitely firmed up some more.

These were looking very promising to me! Haha. 

Next, you toss them into a bowl with the dried dill weed, making sure the dill coats the chickpeas (they had just enough oil on them to hold seasoning). They looked so delicious!

I was excited to try them--even though Eli wasn't here to try them with me, I had to take a taste.

And I was super disappointed, unfortunately. They didn't have any flavor at all, except for the flavor of chickpeas (which is pretty distinct to me). I added a bunch of salt, hoping that would help, but they still didn't have any flavor.

The texture was okay, but they weren't as crunchy as they look. They still very much resembled a chickpea in texture, just drier.

Over the last several years, I've found that it's very difficult for people to nail the dill pickle flavor for foods other than dill pickles. You can't add pickle juice at the end, because it will make everything soggy; but the brine is not condensed enough to use just a small amount in something.

Dill pickles are very bold--so when you want to eat dill pickle flavored anything, you're expecting (and hoping!) that it will be just as bold as a dill pickle. A lot of commercial products have nailed the flavor (Lay's potato chips, for example). I haven't had the dill pickle Lay's since becoming vegan, but I just googled it--and YES, the dill pickle Lay's are vegan!

I think I need to try out different recipes for dill pickle seasoning until I find the perfect one--and then I can use it to experiment on other foods (like making something similar to the roasted chickpeas).

I wanted to like these so much, but the flavor just wasn't there. The whole family agreed.

Still, if you want to give them a try, maybe you'll have better luck than I! Here is the link to the full recipe at Three Olives Branch.