How chickpeas work
Chickpeas. Garbanzo beans. Gram. Chana. Cicer arietinum. This legume has been cultivated across the Levant, the Indian sub-continent, and Ethiopia for thousands of years for good reason. It’s a miraculous crop.
Its plant has the ability to regulate the nitrogen in soil, restoring croplands from overuse. Feed the Future, the USAID’s global hunger and food security initiative, believe it may counter the coming global food shortage.
Robust. Reliably annual. Packed with protein. A good handful packs a fifth of your recommended daily fibre, not to mention buckets of folate, iron, and phosphorus.
They can be stirred into stews and curries and mashed and moulded into burgers. They can be ground into a gluten-free flour called gram, and aquafaba – the brine from soaking chickpeas – can do something truly special. Some even roast and grind chickpeas as a coffee substitute.
What follows is four dishes that demonstrate how eclectic a relationship with this wonderful ingredient can be. They are not recipes per se. Where possible, good reader, I leave the quantities and flavours to you.
Baked Muffin Tray Falafel
Add a little oil to each well of a muffin tray and place into an oven that’s as hot as it will go. Mash chickpeas with a couple of tablespoons of gram flour and a little bicarb. Add your spices and aromatics. Garlic, parsley, coriander, and cumin are ideal. Salt and pepper always.
Mould into small balls. Think ping-pong. Golf balls if you’re nasty. Flatten slightly into round discs, add to the muffin tray, and bake. Every few minutes, turn the falafel. The oil will be blistering. Go slow and gentle.
This took me about twelve minutes overall, but ovens vary. It doesn’t produce the same rich crispness as deep-frying does, but it’s tasty and a little healthier.
A chef’s trick: while your falafel is cooling, soak pitta in salt water for a couple of seconds and drop into a ripping hot pan, turning frequently. It’ll open up and get that gorgeous charred taste.
Hummus
Blitz a garlic clove, lemon juice, salt, ground cumin, and a slug of olive oil in a blender. If you have tahini (ground sesame seeds), add a solid scoop. It’ll bring this dish home to its Levantine roots.
Add a drained tin of chickpeas and blitz again. Add splashes of water and blitz until you’re happy with the consistency.
This is pretty good served with fresh chopped parsley and some more olive oil and ground cumin. Experiment though. In a cross-continental mood, I swapped out the olive oil for coconut oil, tempered mustard seeds, and curry leaves. There’s a subtle irony to a British dude born in 1992 making Indian-Israeli fusion.
Gram Flour Poodla
To make this savoury pancake, grease and pre-heat a skillet or frying pan.
In a large bowl, mix equal parts gram flour and water, a large pinch of salt, and a few spoons of yogurt. It should be a thick batter. I went traditional and used ground cumin, turmeric, red chilli powder, grated onion, minced garlic, and a chopped tomato. Whatever ever you use, chop it very finely indeed.
Stir a couple of spoonfuls of hot oil into the mixture and then pour into the pan until it covers the whole surface. It should be a couple of millimetres thick.
Cover and reduce the heat. Once the poodla is firm and cooked through, flip it. Brown the other side and serve. No lid needed at this juncture.
I ate this with chutney, lime pickle, and yogurt. You can just grate a load of cheese onto it though, and why wouldn’t you?
Vegan Marshmallow Fluff
Measure out equal parts caster sugar, water, and aquafaba.
Aquafaba is chickpea brine. That stuff the tinned sort come in. It has a savoury note that must be countered with strong flavours, but it whisks like egg whites and should therefore make every vegan dance with joy.
Before anything though, make a syrup by heating the sugar and water in an extremely clean pan, stirring at first until the sugar dissolves. Add strong flavours like nutmeg, ground cardamom, and vanilla extract.
Once the syrup reaches 110 Celsius, let it cool. No thermometer? There’s a trick. Drop a little boiling syrup into a bowl of cold water. If it forms a firm yet slightly pliable shape, it’s ready.
Whisk aquafaba until it goes a frothy off-white. Be prepared to sweat if you’re using a hand whisk. Then, whisking, slowly add the cooled syrup. It’ll form a smooth, light whip when it’s ready.
Spread on toast or between cookies. I mostly eat it from the jar at night with my shame spoon.
The Lesson
Chickpeas don’t go off until they’re soaked and exposed to air. You can base a three-course meal on one 25p tin. They’re almost impossibly sustainable. They’re delicious, nutritious, and flexible. Reader. Please. Never be without a tin or two.
