Two sheet pans, one oven, and a dinner that asks nothing of you for forty minutes. The chickpeas go on one pan and the vegetables on the other, and that separation is the only fussy part of this recipe. It is also the whole reason the chickpeas come out crisp instead of soft.
November is the right month for it. Cauliflower and Brussels sprouts are coming in across the Carolinas, the carrots out of the fall harvest are at their sweetest, and the red onions and garlic from that same harvest will keep in the pantry until spring. Roast all of it hot and hard and the edges go brown and sweet.
It is seasoned with Zilch. Nada. None., our organic salt-free all-purpose blend, so the pan tastes like garlic, onion and herbs rather than like salt. Most of the seasoning goes on before roasting, and the last teaspoon lands on the chickpeas the second they come out of the oven, while they are still slick with oil. That is where the bright, green taste comes from.
Put it in the middle of the table with lemon wedges and a bowl of lemon-tahini drizzle and let everyone build their own plate. It feeds four as supper, six alongside something else.
Crispy Chickpea and Winter Vegetable Sheet Pan
Crisp roasted chickpeas and sweet winter vegetables on two sheet pans, seasoned with organic salt-free Zilch. Nada. None. Cauliflower, Brussels sprouts and carrots at their Carolina best, with a lemon-tahini drizzle.
Ingredients
For the chickpeas
- 2 (15.5 oz) cans chickpeas, drained, rinsed and dried very well
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 teaspoons Zilch. Nada. None. seasoning, divided
For the vegetables
- 1 small head cauliflower (about 1½ lb), cut into bite-size florets
- 1 lb Brussels sprouts, trimmed and halved
- 4 medium carrots, cut into ½-inch coins
- 1 large red onion, cut into 1-inch wedges
- 4 garlic cloves, smashed
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 tablespoon Zilch. Nada. None. seasoning
- Freshly cracked black pepper, to taste
To finish
- 2 lemons: zest and juice of one, the other cut into wedges
- ¼ cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
Lemon-tahini drizzle (optional)
- ¼ cup tahini
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 1 small garlic clove, grated
- ½ teaspoon Zilch. Nada. None. seasoning
- 3–5 tablespoons warm water
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 425°F with racks in the upper and lower thirds, and slide two rimmed sheet pans in empty while it comes up to temperature. Food that lands on a hot pan starts crisping on contact instead of sitting in its own steam. Parchment makes the washing up easier and costs you a little of that crispness, so take your pick.
- Dry the chickpeas properly. This is the recipe. Tip them onto a clean kitchen towel and roll them around until the surfaces look dull rather than shiny, letting any loose skins come away. A wet chickpea steams and never crisps, no matter how long you roast it.
- In a bowl, toss the chickpeas with 2 tablespoons olive oil and 1 teaspoon of the seasoning until they are evenly coated.
- In a second bowl, toss the cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, carrots, red onion and smashed garlic with 3 tablespoons olive oil, 1 tablespoon of the seasoning and a few grinds of black pepper.
- Pull the hot pans out carefully. Spread the chickpeas over one in a single layer with a little space between them, and the vegetables over the other, sprouts cut side down — that flat face is where the browning comes from. Everything should hiss when it lands. If a pan looks crowded, use a third; crowded vegetables steam instead of roasting.
- Vegetables on the lower rack, chickpeas on the upper. Roast 20 minutes without opening the door.
- Stir the chickpeas, turn the vegetables with a spatula, and swap the pans top to bottom. Roast another 15 to 20 minutes.
- The vegetables are ready when the cauliflower edges are deep brown and a carrot gives easily to a knife. The chickpeas are ready when they rattle like gravel as you shake the pan. If you want them properly crunchy, give them 5 minutes more and watch them closely.
- Off the heat, scatter the last teaspoon of seasoning over the hot chickpeas while they are still slick with oil, and grate the zest of half the lemon over both pans. Herbs added at the start spend forty minutes drying out; herbs and zest that land on hot oil stay bright and taste like themselves.
- If you are making the drizzle, whisk the tahini, lemon juice, grated garlic and ½ teaspoon of seasoning together. It will seize and look wrong. Add warm water a tablespoon at a time, whisking, until it pours like cream.
- Tip the vegetables onto a platter or carry the pan straight to the table. Scatter the chickpeas over the top, squeeze over the lemon you zested, shower with parsley and spoon the drizzle across. Lemon wedges on the side.
About the salt. Zilch. Nada. None. is made without salt, so the pan tastes of garlic, onion and herbs rather than of salt. Taste it at the end and let people salt their own plate at the table if they want to.
Why it works without salt. Salt normally does two jobs in a pan like this: it seasons, and it draws out moisture so things brown instead of stewing. Here the hot pan and the bone-dry chickpeas handle the moisture, and the lemon zest and juice at the end handle the brightness — acid lands on the palate much the way salt does. The seasoning brings the garlic, onion and herbs underneath, which is what keeps the whole pan from tasting flat.
What is in season right now. Cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, carrots, red onion and garlic are all coming out of the Carolina fall harvest, and the sprouts get sweeter after the first cool nights. North Carolina sweet potatoes are at the peak of their harvest too — swap a pound of the cauliflower for sweet potato cut into ¾-inch cubes and it roasts in the same time. Collards or shredded kale, stirred into the hot vegetables at the very end, wilt in the residual heat.
The chickpeas. Canned is what most of us have and it works. Dried chickpeas you have soaked and cooked yourself crisp noticeably better, if you are the sort of cook who plans a day ahead.
Making it supper. Spoon it over rice or warm pita, or put a fried egg on top. It is also a good side for roast chicken.
Leftovers. Store the chickpeas separately from the vegetables — together in the fridge they go soft overnight. Five minutes at 400°F brings the crunch back.
On the label. Zilch. Nada. None. is USDA Certified Organic, gluten free and kosher, with no MSG, no fillers and no anti-caking agents. The dish as written has no wheat in it either — but read the tahini jar, and the pita if you serve one.
More from this pan. If you like this, try our The OG Sheet Pan with smoked sausage, the Roasted Butternut Squash Soup and the Zilch Nada None Stir Fry, both on this same salt-free blend, the Buddha Bowl, which roasts chickpeas toward a grain bowl rather than a supper, and Crispy Smashed Potatoes.