Am I to oven-bake canned chickpeas drained and rinsed, or is the recipe specifically for hard raw garbanzos? If the latter, what softens them so you can eat 'em? The baking of raw chickpeas would seem to harden them up even further.

Thanks for clearing this up. I am neophyte cook.

Mr. Lee Johnson, Vancouver, Washington, July 31, 2007

I am not new to cooking but definitely new to cooking some of these foods on this USD, so I second that question about whether to use canned chickpeas or fresh ones.  Also...what kind of spice is that garam masala?  I have never heard of it before.

Are the chickpeas dried or canned?

I have tried variations of this recipe for years, but this is my favorite. Thank you for posting!

In response to the questions by other posters, the canned ones are what I've always used. I rinse the salt off them and drain them. I find it easier to mix all the ingredients in a ziploc bag and just shake them, instead of the bowl. When they cook, they get kind of squishy at first, but the longer they roast (keep shaking the cookie sheet every 10 minutes or so) the crunchier they get.

They end up kind of hollow in the middle and crunchy on the outside, if that makes any sense? I love them in place of popcorn and they are easy to take to work in a bag to snack on. Plus, they are very filling!

The garam masala is a mixture of Indian-type spices. I found it at Kroger in the regular spice aisle.

Angela