25 Charming Recipes Featuring Chickpeas (2024)

What can't the mighty chickpea do? Beloved across the Mediterranean, Middle East, and India, chickpeas make their way into all sorts of snacks, sides, and main dishes enjoyed at all hours of the day. They're ground into flour to make pancakes, fried up for a hearty snack or salad topper, pureed into spreads, and simmered in curries, soups, and stews. These 25 recipes celebrate chickpeas in all their various preparations. Use them instead of hominy in a veggie-based pozole, serve them solo in a salad dressed with lemon and herbs, or toss them with pasta, greens, and mozzarella for a flavorful go-to weeknight meal. We have plenty of chickpea recipes to celebrate the legume's versatility.

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Marinated Chickpea Salad with Radishes, Cucumber, and Queso de Freir

25 Charming Recipes Featuring Chickpeas (1)

This quick chickpea salad from pastry chef Paola Velez is packed with vegetables and tossed with a simple, flavorful lemon-garlic and cumin dressing. Crispy, melty strips of fried queso de freir — a favorite cheese from Velez's childhood — take the dish over the top. The salad comes together in 30 minutes, making it ideal for busy nights.

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02of 25

Chana Daal with Squash

25 Charming Recipes Featuring Chickpeas (2)

"The inspiration for this recipe is doodhi chana, a stew of bottle gourd and dried split chickpeas that I grew up eating in Gujarat," chef Vishwesh Bhatt says. "I always thought it lacked the oomph of other preparations my mother made. Then I discovered ras el hanout, preserved lemons, and pomegranate molasses, which elevated the previously boring gourd to new heights."

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03of 25

Chickpea Doubles with Tamarind and Scotch Bonnet Pepper Sauce

25 Charming Recipes Featuring Chickpeas (3)

These traditional Trinidadian doubles from 2019 F&W Best New Chef Kwame Onwuachi are served open-faced and quickly wrapped in wax paper, letting the flatbread steam and keeping the spicy filling piping hot. Try leftover tamarind sauce in margaritas, drizzled over fresh mangoes, or with roast pork.

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04of 25

Mushroom-Chickpea Pozole

25 Charming Recipes Featuring Chickpeas (4)

"Here I use mushrooms to give us that earthy heartiness that you expect from pozole, no meat needed," says chef Marcela Valladolid. "Guajillo, ancho, and árbol chiles are soaked and pureed for a perfectly balanced sauce that punches up the savory mushroom broth; the chickpeas are a yummy twist in place of the dried hominy."

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05of 25

Lemony Chickpea Salad

25 Charming Recipes Featuring Chickpeas (5)

This chickpea salad from chef Tom Colicchio is accented with lemon, garlic, rosemary, and oregano, and gets a kick of flavor from quick-pickled onion and chopped peperoncini. Serve it with warm, soft pita bread to soak up the olive oil dressing.

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06of 25

Fainá (Chickpea Flour Pancake) with Provolone Cheese

25 Charming Recipes Featuring Chickpeas (6)

Fainá is a savory chickpea flour pancake that originated in Italy but is popular in Argentina, where this recipe is from. For this cheesy version from the Buenos Aires restaurant El Preferido, the fainá is twice-baked to achieve the perfect texture: a crispy top and tender, custard-like center.

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07of 25

Orzo and Chickpeas with Turmeric-Ginger Broth

25 Charming Recipes Featuring Chickpeas (7)

Coconut milk and fresh lime juice are natural flavor partners to ginger and turmeric; here they come together to form a restorative tea-based broth that’s delicious studded with chickpeas and pasta.

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08of 25

Socca with Zucchini and Olives

25 Charming Recipes Featuring Chickpeas (8)

Socca, also called farinata in Liguria, is a crisp, tender pancake made from chickpea flour. Unlike the versions in Nice, which are cooked in copper pans, this one is baked in a cast-iron skillet before it's topped with a summery marinated squash salad.

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09of 25

Hummus Masabacha with Paprika and Whole Chickpeas

25 Charming Recipes Featuring Chickpeas (9)

Before opening Zahav restaurant in Philadelphia, chef Michael Solomonov visited hummus parlors all over Israel trying to find the best recipe. "Hummus is the hardest thing to get right," he says. "It has to be rich, creamy, and mildly nutty." To make his hummus luxuriously smooth, he soaks the chickpeas overnight with baking soda to soften them.

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10of 25

Chickpeas and Kale in Spicy Pomodoro Sauce

25 Charming Recipes Featuring Chickpeas (10)

Chef Missy Robbins of Brooklyn's Lilia restaurant swaps chickpeas for pasta in her riff on spicy pomodoro. She finishes the dish with a shower of fresh herbs and salty pecorino cheese.

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11of 25

Crispy Chickpeas

25 Charming Recipes Featuring Chickpeas (11)

To make these salty snacks, chef Jason Travi tosses canned chickpeas with flour, coriander, and cumin, then fries them. He loves popping them into his mouth while he's watching football.

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12of 25

Chickpeas in Spicy Tomato Gravy

25 Charming Recipes Featuring Chickpeas (12)

This classic Punjabi dish, called masaledar chholay, is fragrant with garlic, jalapeño, ginger, cumin, and coriander. It's often served as part of a big Sunday lunch, along with raita, naan, and salad.

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Herbed Chickpea Bruschetta

25 Charming Recipes Featuring Chickpeas (13)

The key to these delicious bruschetta from chef Nancy Silverton is lots of olive oil. After she bakes the chickpeas with a variety of flavorings — including onions, pancetta, and carrots — she purees them with a good amount of oil, spreads the puree on toasts, and drizzles with a little more oil.

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14of 25

Chickpea Stew with Spinach and Chorizo

25 Charming Recipes Featuring Chickpeas (14)

This stew, like all those in Catalonia, starts with a sofrito, a thick sauce made from sautéed onions and tomatoes. Once you get all the ingredients in the pot, there's not much to do besides enjoy the aroma wafting from this hearty, spicy, soupy stew as it slowly cooks.

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Kale Caesar with Fried Chickpeas

25 Charming Recipes Featuring Chickpeas (15)

This tangy Caesar salad is topped with light, airy, and super-crunchy pan-fried chickpeas instead of the usual croutons.

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16of 25

Chickpea and Swiss Chard Chili

25 Charming Recipes Featuring Chickpeas (16)

"This smoky, rich chili is one of my go-to weeknight dinners, and for good reason," says former F&W culinary director at large Justin Chapple. "It's a one-pot dish that has 10 ingredients (not including salt and pepper) and comes together in just 30 minutes. Plus, you can make it a day or two in advance because it reheats beautifully."

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17of 25

Spicy Chickpea Soup

25 Charming Recipes Featuring Chickpeas (17)

Chickpeas are used as the base for this creamy (though cream-free) soup, which is flavored with the Indian spice blend garam masala and prepared by first pureeing it, then simmering it, to save time.

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Carrot and Chickpea Salad

25 Charming Recipes Featuring Chickpeas (18)

Chef Charles Kelsey tosses chickpeas and carrots with a deliciously unusual combination of smoked paprika, cumin, and cilantro.

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Chickpea Salad Sandwiches

25 Charming Recipes Featuring Chickpeas (19)

These open-faced vegetarian sandwiches are loaded with plenty of chickpeas, onion, lemon juice, and dill. The salad sits atop slices of multigrain toast and is garnished with creamy avocado slices and a sprinkling of sprouts.

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Lamb Meatballs with Red Pepper and Chickpea Sauce

25 Charming Recipes Featuring Chickpeas (20)

Chef Nancy Silverton got this hearty meatball recipe from Matt Molina, the former chef de cuisine at Campanile. When the meatballs are almost cooked through, she pushes them to one side of the skillet and adds the ceci (Italian for chickpeas). That way everything soaks up the flavor of the luscious roasted red pepper sauce.

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21of 25

Spiced Chickpeas with Yogurt and Pine Nuts

25 Charming Recipes Featuring Chickpeas (21)

More people should eat chickpeas at breakfast! The chefs at Marisa May’s now-shuttered restaurant SD26 used to make these stewy, savory chickpeas for her when she hadn’t gotten to eat something filling at home.

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Orecchiette with Greens, Mozzarella, and Chickpeas

25 Charming Recipes Featuring Chickpeas (22)

For this aromatic recipe, the chickpeas are fried and spiced, then get strewn across the medley of tender pasta, garlicky veggies, and fresh mozzarella and basil. Try the dish with a fruit-forward Pinot Gris.

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Spiced Lamb and Rice Dressing with Chickpeas

25 Charming Recipes Featuring Chickpeas (23)

Instead of the more common bread-based dressing, Bi-Rite Market owner Sam Mogannam's mother, Mariette, always serves turkey with this hearty, savory Palestinian stuffing, traditionally used as a filling for grape leaves or halved zucchini.

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Curried Spaghetti Squash and Chickpea Toasts

25 Charming Recipes Featuring Chickpeas (24)

Spaghetti squash gets its name because once it's cooked, you can use a fork to pull the flesh into long, thin strands. Chef Jonathon Sawyer makes his own curry and cooks his own chickpeas for this vegetarian dish, but this simplified recipe calls for store-bought curry paste and canned chickpeas. Sawyer roasts the seeds from the squash and uses them as a garnish; pumpkin seeds from the supermarket are a fine substitute.

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Chickpea-Chile Flatbreads

25 Charming Recipes Featuring Chickpeas (25)

Chef Suvir Saran rolls the savory flatbread dough into a cone shape before griddling, flattening it to create extra-flaky layers.

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25 Charming Recipes Featuring Chickpeas (2024)

FAQs

What's the difference between garbanzo beans and chickpeas? ›

The honest answer—there's no difference between chickpeas and garbanzo beans. They're just two (of many) different names for the same type of pulse. (Pulses are basically seeds of legume plants.) The word chickpea doesn't come from chickens at all—it's an evolution of the plant's Latin name, cicer arietinum.

What goes well with chickpeas? ›

Use them instead of hominy in a veggie-based pozole, serve them solo in a salad dressed with lemon and herbs, or toss them with pasta, greens, and mozzarella for a flavorful go-to weeknight meal. We have plenty of chickpea recipes to celebrate the legume's versatility.

Are canned chickpeas healthy? ›

Great news! Both canned and dried varieties of chickpeas are nutritious! When purchasing canned varieties, look for those labeled "no salt added" or "low in sodium." Overall, beans are budget-friendly, but dried can often be less expensive and also more flavorful than canned.

Are chickpeas healthy or not? ›

Naturally low in saturated fat, loaded with nutrients

While naturally low in saturated fat, chickpeas are nutrient-dense. They provide nearly 20 grams of protein in a ½-cup serving and 5 grams of dietary fiber. Chickpeas also are a source of folate, iron, vitamin C and phosphorus.

Which is healthier chickpeas or beans? ›

Answer: All three beans, like other legumes, are great choices,supplying protein and dietary fiber as well as a variety ofvitamins and minerals. Black beans are slightly higher in fiberthan the other two choices and provide some extra magnesium, butgarbanzo beans (chickpeas) are a little higher in the B vitaminfolate.

What is the healthiest way to eat chickpeas? ›

Not only are these superfoods super tasty, but they're also extremely versatile. Meaning, no matter how long you're socially isolated, you won't run out of ways to make chickpeas. "Chickpeas are wonderful to add directly to your dish—like salad, pasta, or soup—for extra protein and fiber," Cannon told us.

What makes chickpeas taste better? ›

Salt: This is optional, but it enhances the flavor of the chickpeas. Add it to the cooking water or season it to taste towards the end of cooking. Adding salt in the beginning will season the chickpeas more thoroughly. Baking soda: I do not add baking soda, but you can.

Can you directly eat canned chickpeas? ›

Canned chickpeas are pre-cooked chickpeas. You can eat canned chickpeas straight out of the can! (Just be sure to rinse them off before chowing down to wash out excess sodium) Otherwise, you can roast them or turn them into any number of delicious dishes, like these here.

Do chickpeas reduce belly fat? ›

Experts found that even a single serving of chickpeas or pulses in a day can help in reducing belly fat and overall weight. This is because Kala Chana or black chickpeas is loaded with dietary fiber, which provides satiety.

How many times a week should you eat chickpeas? ›

You can eat at least one serving (28 grams) of chickpeas per day. However, don't eat more than 70 grams a day since that can cause adverse side effects. If you consume too many chickpeas, some side effects you may get include bloating, nausea, and gas. It's important to remember that chickpeas should not be eaten raw.

What is the best time to eat chickpeas? ›

Yes, it is ok to eat Chickpeas at night, in fact, they can be eaten at any time of day. Chickpeas are rich in vitamin B6, magnesium and a constituent (tryptophan) which helps in getting a healthy and sound sleep[6].

Are chickpeas anti-inflammatory? ›

No, chickpeas aren't considered inflammatory. Most healthcare providers consider chickpeas to be an anti-inflammatory food. This means they can help fight harmful inflammation in your body. They're also high in fiber and a good source of protein.

Which chickpea is best? ›

Black chickpeas are slightly higher in protein and fibre than white chickpeas, and they also contain more iron, folate, and antioxidants. On the other hand, white chickpeas are slightly lower in calories and carbohydrates than black chickpeas, making them a good choice for those who are watching their calorie intake.

Are chickpeas and garbanzo beans the same? ›

Although their names are very different, garbanzo beans and chickpeas refer to the same bean. And to confuse things a little more, chickpeas are beans, not peas. "They are the same, one is obviously more Anglophile," says Steve Sando, the founder of heirloom bean company Rancho Gordo.

Is hummus made from chickpeas or garbanzo beans? ›

The base ingredient is of course garbanzo beans – also known as chickpeas, bengal grams, Egyptian peas, and ceci beans. While it derives much of its nutritional value and signature creamy texture from garbanzo beans, the other ingredients give hummus its unique and versatile flavor.

Which chickpeas is better? ›

Black chickpeas are slightly higher in protein and fibre than white chickpeas, and they also contain more iron, folate, and antioxidants. On the other hand, white chickpeas are slightly lower in calories and carbohydrates than black chickpeas, making them a good choice for those who are watching their calorie intake.

Can you eat chickpeas out of the can? ›

Canned chickpeas are pre-cooked chickpeas. You can eat canned chickpeas straight out of the can! (Just be sure to rinse them off before chowing down to wash out excess sodium) Otherwise, you can roast them or turn them into any number of delicious dishes, like these here.

What are garbanzo beans good for? ›

Chickpeas are high in fiber, protein, and healthy fats and have a low GI. Potential benefits of chickpeas include helping control blood sugar, manage weight, and support heart and gut health. Chickpeas are versatile, so you can add them to many savory or sweet meals and snacks.

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