Easy Appetizer–Roasted Chickpeas with Goat Cheese

Last month when we spent 24 hours in Austin, we had the best appetizer at a restaurant called Lambert’s. I rarely remember a dish so well that I actually want to recreate it at home, but this dish was right up my alley.

I have a slight addiction to chickpeas (I make hummus every week now), and this dish also had caramelized onions (yum and Jeffrey loves them), roasted tomatoes (I know how to do that, just did it), and goat cheese. The restaurant served it with soft pita, we had hard pita chips. Soft is probably better.

Just from the memory and checking the online menu, I recreated this dish.

Smokey Roasted Chickpeas with Roasted Tomatoes, Caramelized Onions and Goat Cheese

Ingredients:

• 1 can (15 oz) chickpeas
• 2 large tomatoes, squish out the juice, chopped roughly
• 1 red onion, diced
• 3 T oregano
• 2 oz goat cheese (or more if you like it extra cheesy)
• pita chips or soft pita
• EVOO, salt, pepper, cayenne

Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 450*.
• Drain and rinse chickpeas and add to a small bowl. Coat with 2 T EVOO, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper, and 1/4 tsp cayenne.
• Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray and line half with foil. Pour chickpeas on the unlined half and spread evenly.
• On the foil lined half, spread out tomatoes and drizzle with 1 T EVOO, salt and pepper.

(I did this so I didn’t dirty two baking sheets, and one sheet was too big for them individually. I lined with foil because the tomatoes give off a lot of juice and I didn’t want it to make the chickpeas soggy.)

• Bake for 25-30 minutes, until chickpeas are crispy. Turn every 10 minutes.
• On the stovetop, drizzle with 1 T EVOO and add red onions to pot. Sprinkle generous amount of salt to let out the sweetness.
• Caramelize for about 35 minutes over low heat, stirring frequently. This is different than a saute.

(minute 0, going into the pan)

• When chickpeas and tomatoes are done and onions are done, add chickpeas and tomatoes to the onions and stir together over low heat.

(roasted chickpeas are great just as a snack too. spicy and crunchy, mmm.)

(about 30 minutes later, soft and sweet)

• Right before serving, add goat cheese to get creamy. Add oregano and mix together.

• An alternative that Jeffrey suggested would be to put the goat cheese at the bottom of a bowl and the chickpea mix on top.

• Serve over a salad for a meal, or with pita chips for an appetizer.

All mixed together with goat cheese mixed in and a dollop on top.

The flavors are creamy from the cheese, sweet from the onions, and spicy from the chickpeas.

Over a salad as a meal with pita chips. We thought it would be a great appetizer. The cheese made it look not as sharp, but it tasted great.

Also, I have a new story posted on CultureMap. This month, the theme is Green Living, and I have a lot coming up. The first one is How green is your kitchen? 7 tips to get started.

Have you tried to recreate a dish from a restaurant?