Roasted Chickpeas with Beetroot and Rocket

Contemplating tasty food plans to occupy a locked-down, nowhere-to-go weekend. I’m sharing some of my favourite cookbooks in my stories today, but here’s a recipe from me that I just love and hope you will too. Roasted Chickpeas with Beetroot and Rocket.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 tablespoon of olive oil

•  1 tin of chickpeas, drained and rinsed.

•  1/2 a red onion, diced

•  1 beetroot, diced (I used pre-cooked beetroot from the supermarket as I always have them in the fridge)

•  2-4 garlic cloves in their skins (amount depends on personal preference)

•  The leaves from a sprig of rosemary

•  A handful of fresh parsley, chopped

•  A handful of rocket leaves

•  Plenty of salt and pepper

DIRECTIONS

1. Pre-heat the oven at 180 degrees centigrade.

2. Place the chickpeas, red onion, beetroot and garlic into a baking tray then add the olive oil and plenty of salt and pepper and mix everything together well.

3. Place in the middle of the oven and bake for 30-40 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent the onion from drying out and blackening.

4. After 40 minutes or so the chickpeas should have crisped up fairly well. At this point, stir in the rosemary leaves and cook for another 5-10 minutes or until the rosemary has softened, but not burnt.

5. Remove the baking tray from the oven, then stir the chopped parsley and rocket into the hot dish, allowing their leaves to soften slightly. Check the flavour and add more salt and black pepper if required.

6. Serve and eat immediately.

This is a vegetarian dish, but it’s also very nice with torn roast chicken running through it, or with thin slices of roast beef.