How pathetic is it that I can say without any trace of sarcasm that I legitimately consider these chickpeas a dessert?
Chickpeas…a dessert. Yep, that’s what I’m saying.
I recently jumped on the tahini bandwagon and of course, couldn’t wait to test it out. So within 20 minutes of bringing it home from the store, these little cinnamon sugar balls were roasting away with a nice coating of tahini smothered all over them.
My brother would flip for these. He was the cinnamon toast crunch kid, I was the lucky charms one. We were not allowed to touch each other’s cereal boxes. It was like the one treat my mom let us have in the house from time to time and there was an unspoken understanding that we didn’t mess with the other person’s stash.
Well guess what, Adrian? These babies are all mine.
Parents…want a treat for your kids that doesn’t cost $5 a box and you can feel good about feeding them? Try these.
Everyone else…make them for yourself and be prepared to come to terms that you now deem beans an appropriate dessert.
- 1 15oz. can chickpeas, drained, rinsed and thoroughly dried
- 1 tablespoon tahini
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees and grease a baking sheet.
- Combine sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl until fully combined.
- Toss dried beans with tahini first to coat and then sprinkle cinnamon sugar and mix until all are coated.
- Spread out onto baking sheet and roast for 15-20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes so they don’t burn on any one side.
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My brother was also a cinnamon toast crunch kid. I was more into cocoa puffs…anything with chocolate, really.
I can’t wait to try this recipe! Going to go soak some chickpeas now!
WHAT! Shut up! First of all – how did you drink wine all night and eat cheese and still manage to get a post up this morning?! Please tell me you set this up the day before…it will make me feel better about myself
Second of all – those look awesome and I would like to be dipping my hand into that jar and grabbing fistfuls of it right now please. Thank you!
haha, this post was written and scheduled while still sober before last night’s ridiculousness. Right now I’m nursing a hangover with some coconut water hoping I can get my act together enough soon to make 3 side dishes for Easter tomorrow!
Okay, well I’m not glad that you’re nursing a hangover but I AM glad that that post was done well in advance…otherwise I’d feel pretty bad about myself and what I’m able to accomplish in life. Haha.
Good luck with the hangover and the side dishes!
Fabulous recipe!! I love roasted chickapeas they remind me of corn nuts, but way healthier!
I sort of live by the saying- life is too short to make dessert out of beans, but these…. I could dig haha.
after you tweeted about these yesterday, i couldn’t wait for the recipe! definitely making these this week!
I have a recipe for these too except I use more brown sugar so it gets extra caramely. They are so good and I could eat the entire tray pretty much right out of the oven. Double batches are a necessity
Cinnamon toast crunch was my favorite too! I love the beans for dessert idea haha. I’m not sure how anyone else will react to them, but I’m sure they’ll want to eat them up as soon as they try them. The chickpeas look so crunchy!
Lol, I have never seen this site but knew about a similar recipe & was googling for it & this page came up. Was surprised you posted today. Great job in Google search. And I’ve got a new jar of tahini on hand so going to make these straight away. THANKS! and.. Happy Easter
Hope you like them and Happy Easter to you too
i have been making dessert hummus lately and totally love it!!!
These look amazing, can’t wait to try the recipe out!!
Amazing! I love that you’ve turned chickpeas into a dessert.
OMG this is THE best/yummiest/smartest recipe I have seen in a while. I’ve roasted chickpeas before but have never made them SWEET! As a sugar-addict, that sounds impossible and ridiculous, soooo I’m definitely making this…
like, right now. Thank you so much
This is probably the most unusual combination Chickpeas and cinamon: I’ve come across: I’m going to give it a whirl hough. Can’t wait.
do these get crunchy after you bake them? the one time I tried making baked chickpeas like these they turned out soggier and not crunchy at all and i was disappointed.. but i would love to try them again if they come out crunchy (i’m looking for a substitute for the “crunch” in nuts)
The trick to getting them crunchy is to make sure they are completely dry before tossing them with the tahini and cinnamon/sugar. So after you rinse & drain them, either dry them thoroughly with a paper towel or let them sit out and dry first. They won’t get as crunchy as a real nut but they won’t be soggy either.
I’m not as cool as the rest of you guys. Is there anything I can use in place of Tahini?
although not really similar, you could try tossing them in a bit of honey first. They’d probably be extra sweet and delicious
Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Cinnamon Life were my favorite cereals growing up!! I’ve made peanut butter roasted chickpeas before and they were awesome so I’m quite certain these would be right up my alley.
I am going to try these..they sound awesome. you should try to get on food network chopped, very creative use of ingredients lol
haha, that show is like my worst nightmare! I would have a panic attack and totally freeze up!
lol…regardless, I just made these and they are sooo yummy! thanks
Gina, this is effin’ brilliant!! I’m so totally making these bad boys. They sound delicious!
I’ve tried some other roasted chickpeas before, but this looks even better. Cinnamon and Sugar is a great idea! I can’t wait to try them out!
How cool is this recipe! I wish I could be so creative.
Great idea for a quick snack. Except I would substitute stevia for the sugar.
WHOA!! I am a cinnamon FREAK! (And a chickpea lover). This looks amazing!!
Any suggestions for a sub for tahini? Would just sesame seeds work? Or a different seed/nut butter? Just trying to think of what I have on hand…
Try almond butter if you have it. I wouldn’t go the sesame seed route because they won’t give it the same kind of coating that the liquidy tahini does. Almond butter should work
Hello there!
I am totally perplexed at what happened when I made these! I am trying to use dried beans instead of canned. (apparently using canned anything can cause cancer…along with everything else in the world) Anyways, I soaked my beans and they still didn’t seem as creamy as a canned bean
I proceeded with the recipe, sort of ( I only used Trader Joe’s cookie butter, and chick peas and they weren’t crunch at all they were sort of mealy. The flavor was great though! Do you think its because I didn’t use the canned bean? HELP! I want to eat tons and tons of these asap!
Hi Valerie- I’ve never used dry beans that I soaked so I can’t really say if that’s the issue. Were the beans completely dried before you tossed them with the cookie butter? If they’re not dry, they will definitely come out more mushy than crunchy. I also haven’t roasted with cookie butter, so I’m not sure what that might do to them. It’s hard for me to say what went wrong when I haven’t made it that way exactly. They will definitely crisp up a bit if you follow the recipe but don’t expect them to be as crispy as nuts, b/c they’re definitely still beans!
No worries, I will try again! I have faith.
I just made these and they were awful! They weren’t sweet at all. Not sure what I did wrong but I just threw the entire batch in the trash.
Jenny- sorry they didn’t turn out for you. I’m not even sure how it’s possible they wouldn’t have been sweet considering 2 of the 3 ingredients (besides the beans) are cinnamon & sugar. That’s really weird and hasn’t happened to me at all in the 3 times I’ve made them since this post.
Hi Gina,
Thanks for the good recipe! I used dried chickpeas – had to stir them every 8-10 minutes for 45-50 minutes to get them nice and crunchy. I used half brown sugar and half white sugar. I added some salt as soon as I got them out of the oven to bring out the sweetness – delicious!
love the addition of salt at the end! Glad you liked them
And just in case anyone is wondering, these are better as a snack than with milk as a cereal – my dear fiance thought he was going to have the best breakfast ever this morning… not the case!
Haha!
oh my gosh, I can’t believe he tried them as “cereal” haha! I know I named it after the cereal, but I never intended it to be eaten that way! Chickpeas + milk is kinda making me cringe right now.
Poor guy!
Silly boys!
I NEED to make these soon! I used to love any kind of sugary breakfast cereal like cocoa crispies, cinnamon toast crunch, peanut butter captain crunch… I think the list could go on forever
Even though it is SO hot today, I am giving these a try. Using natural peanut butter because I am out of tahini. I made sure they were dry and removed most of the chick pea skins too so i think they will dry out a bit more. I also made sure to really spread them out on the cookie sheet so the moisture could evaporate. They are delicious.
Im going to experiment with this as we are trying to switch to homemade cereal. Any idea how this recipie would freeze? I know somethings things loose there crunch when frozen think that would be the case?
I honestly don’t think these would freeze well at all. Pretty sure they’d turn to mush after defrosting.
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