Honey Balsamic Roasted Chickpeas

I have never been a fan of beans.  All of my life, that gritty, grainy, beany texture has always been something that just makes me want to gag.  However, beans are healthy, and they’re cheap (a very good things when you’re living on a college student budget, like we are right now), so I’ve tried quite a few different recipes that people promised made that icky bean texture go away (including making hummus, and a suggestion that we cook and mash up white beans with garlic and rosemary.  “It tastes just like mashed potatoes!” they promised.  No.  It most certainly didn’t), and they never really worked, until last night.  Yesterday, we finally found a method of making beans that I was actually willing to eat.  And willing to eat in fairly large quantities.  We took chickpeas and roasted them (adapting this recipe slightly).  The kids really loved the chickpeas too- they kept snitching them out of the bowl to snack on them while they were waiting for dinner to be done.

Ingredients:
16 oz bag of dry chickpeas (also called garbanzo beans)
Lightly salted water (for soaking the beans- salt optional)
3 Tbsp Olive Oil
2 tsp balsamic vinegar
2 Tbsp Honey
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp rosemary
1 tsp salt, or more to taste, depending on how salty you like your chickpeas
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp thyme
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp ground red pepper

Soak the chickpeas in a container of lightly salted water for at least 24 hours.  You'll want to be sure the beans are covered with at least an inch of water, because they'll be soaking a lot of it up.  After soaking for 24 hours, drain and rinse the soaked chickpeas and spread them out in a single layer on a large greased baking sheet.  Preheat the oven to 400º.  In a small bowl, mix together olive oil, honey, balsamic vinegar, basil, rosemary, salt, oregano, thyme, garlic powder, and red pepper, then drizzle over the top of the chickpeas and stir until well coated.  Bake at 400 for 30-40 minutes or until fairly well browned, stirring halfway through.