Tastes & Travels
Spiced Popcorn and Chickpea Snack
This is a nut-free take on the popular Nigerian street food snack of popcorn and groundnuts. I season it with a ground chickpea-based spin on Suya spice blend, a spicy ground peanut-based blend that’s used on skewered meat and served as a popular street and take-away food in Nigeria. Adjust the cayenne to suit your tolerance for heat. The range given here will make the popcorn mildly to somewhat spicy, but you can double it if you want some serious burn.
Spiced Popcorn and Chickpea Snack
Makes 4 to 6 servings
- 2 1/3 cups roasted chickpea snacks (sea salt flavor)
- 1 teaspoon sweet paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- ¼ to 1/2 teaspoon ground cayenne
- 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
- Kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1/2 cup popcorn kernels
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter or ghee, melted
- Put about 1/3 cup of the roasted chickpeas in a spice grinder and grind until powdered but not pasty. Transfer to a small bowl and stir in the paprika, ginger, cayenne, garlic powder, onion powder, allspice and 1 teaspoon salt.
- Heat the vegetable oil in a large heavy bottomed pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add a few kernels of popcorn. Once they begin to pop, scatter in all of the popcorn and cover the pot.