A community for people who love to cook! @lemmy.ml Linnce @lemmy.world 3 mo. ago

Tasty dishes where chickpeas are the main ingredient?

I'm trying to eat more beans as I eat less meat and making them from scratch is not an option. Pre-cooked beans are very hard to find where I live apart for chickpeas apparently.

17 comments

Chickpeas are probably my favorite bean!

Chana masala is one of my favorites, it's basically chickpeas in a spiced tomato sauce and its absolutely delicious

I also make a salad that's chickpeas, shredded carrots, celery, green onion, and dill that's lovely

Last one, but falafels are outstanding, and not that hard to make. I always start those from dried chickpeas though, I'm not sure if canned would hold up as well tbh
- If you're a channa masala fan, you should try doubles! It's a street food in Trinidad and Tobago. It's a bit of work but it is definitely worth it. It's basically a west Indie burrito made from a flat bread called bara and channa, and IMO it NEEDS kuchela.
  
  Doubles are AMAZING !
- Welp. That solves my what-should-I-eat-tonight query. Thanks.
- Didn't know falafels were a thing! That's perfect for me as I also want to include spinach. I also didn't know you could eat chickpeas without pressure cooking them, so this is even better as dried chickpeas are cheaper. Thanks!
  
  You need to soak the chickpeas for a few hours before cooking them, ideally with baking soda do they cook faster.
Hummus! With a little bit of Greek yogurt and garlic and olive oil 🤌🏼
- my favorite one had some sort of citrus and paprika and now my mouth waters every time i think about hummus.
Get a pressure cooker, and cooking any dried beans becomes quick and easy.

For chickpeas, we often do curries. This one is great, too: https://www.budgetbytes.com/sriracha-hummus/
You could make falafel
- Never had success making falafel from pre-cooked chickpeas but perhaps I'm doing it wrong?
  
  Pre-cooked chickpeas are going to be too soft for falafel unless you add a lot of binders; otherwise they'll fall apart in the fryer. Soaked (but raw) chickpeas are the usual method.
  
  I have had great luck with this recipe: https://www.themediterraneandish.com/how-to-make-falafel/#tasty-recipes-10436-jump-target
I eat chickpeas at least once a week. Soak overnight with salted water, then simmered on stovetop for 30+ minutes (just try eating one to see if they're to taste). You can drain and keep in refrigerator for a couple days like this, so they're ready to go.

Here are the recipes I kind of cycle through:

In a salad: spread out over baking sheet(s) with salt+pepper, roast on high heat (200+) about 10-20 minutes, put on salad with a garlicky tahini dressing + a messy drizzle of sriracha sauce for spice.

Frizzled chicpeas: Start caraméling a lot of onions in a large skillet. Amount of olive oil will determine how "rich" you want end product to feel. Dump a bunch of roughly smashed garlic in, then add your boiled (and preferably dried) chicpeas. Cook until good. I do it vegan, but pressing in some halloumi against the bottom of the pan to get it browned is good here.

Just a chicpea-forward been salad: mixed with assorted whatever beans, onions, in a vinegary dressing. Gets better the longer it soaks, so great for leftover lunch the next day.
If you're having trouble getting dry chickpeas (or other dry legumes) to cook properly, sometimes it's not your process at fault, but the legume itself. The older the legume, the worse they cook.

Ideally <1 year since harvest, ok 1~2 years, tolerable 2~3 years; all depending on how they've been stored, too.

But yeah, nice fresh dry chickpeas, soaked for 12-24hrs with a pinch of sodium bicarbonate, should cook to a lovely texture without a pressure cooker in 40-60 minutes.
My partner and I are super happy with the recipe website mob.co.uk for it's functionality. It has no BS life stories, lets you tick the ingredients off and use the ingredients page as a shopping list, it's concise and to the point...

Anyway, searching by "chickpea" it's showing me 3 pages worth of recipes with chickpeas which look pretty good, such as "Roast Sweet Potato with Chickpea & Coconut Curry Recipe". For some reason linking to the search results directly doesn't work but here's a link to the search page in case you want to take a look: https://www.mob.co.uk/search
My wife makes falafel with big meatball things that don't actually have meat and are mostly chickpeas I believe. It's a really satisfying meal if you're craving something savory and meaty.

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