A funny thing happened on the way to this recipe (if you can call it a recipe – it’s really just a “how to shell a garbanzo bean” story).  I wanted to make a crispy, salty chickpea snack to go with the sangria.  There are lots of recipes for chickpea snacks out there and I tried several of them with canned chickpeas.  They were all…  how can I put it?   Lousy.  Mushy, over-spiced, – nothing I would serve to a guest.  I bought some fresh chickpeas (called garbanzo beans at the grocery store) and brought them home to roast.  And then something amazing happened: when I popped a raw one in my mouth it was a revelation!  Crunchy, sweet, pale green, delicious and totally healthy – like the sweetest, freshest pea-out-of-the-pod you ever tasted.  Everyone who tried them had the same reaction: “These are chickpeas!?”  I never got around to roasting them, because they are perfect just as they are.  My only caveat: they lose some of their freshness after a day, so serve soon after shelling.

Serves 4

Prep time: 15 minutes

*Note: I’d never seen these at the grocery store until this summer, but they are available at both the Whole Foods and our local Safeway, so I don’t think they will be too difficult to find.