Chickpeas are an underrated legume for those not yet aware of its true potential. This post is somewhat of an appreciation post, one to provide you with inspiration to get more chickpeas in your diet!
First, it’s only right to let you guys know, I’m going to be talking about chickpeas in 3 forms, aquafaba (chickpea), gram (powdered chickpeas), and whole chickpeas.
Aquafaba
Otherwise known as chickpea water, which you can get from canned chickpeas, as well as the water from soaked chickpeas.
You may use it as a whipped egg white substitute as well as unwhipped, as an egg replacement in baking. You’d be surprised what vegan meals you can make from aquafaba, that you probably thought you’d never eat again.
Uses of aquafaba include:
Bread
Butter
Dumplings
Mayo
Meringue
Mousse
Muffins
Tempuras
Is aquafaba bad for you?
One annoying thing about aquafaba is that it’s made from chickpea water, which usually gets discarded for good reason.
Chickpea water, as well as water in general used to soak beans, can be difficult to digest due to saponins that are very prevalent in bean water.
Saponins are secreted by plants as a defence mechanism to prevent pests and animals from eating the crop, making them bad for digestion.
I’d recommend limiting aqua faba if possible, considering there’s no way to filter out saponins from it as of yet.
Gram flour
Gram flour is made from grinding down chickpeas into a fine powder. Common among Indian cuisine, it’s typically used as a key ingredient for fritters and snacks.
Uses of gram flour includes:
Bombay mix
Crackers
Egg free scramble
Flatbread
Savoury pancakes
Pakoras
Papadums
Quiches
Is chickpea flour good for you?
Gram flour is a gluten free, low carb option rich in healthy nutrients such as magnesium, as well as fibre and protein.
It can be easy to use oil more often with gram flour, so be weary to limit how much you fry with it, it’s also fine to bake as well, for more healthy recipes.
Can regular flour be substituted for gram flour?
In theory, it can. From a consumer and food lover’s opinion, it’s not the ideal flour to use for baking.
You can make bread, cakes and muffins from chickpea flour, it doesn’t give you the ideal texture you’d be looking for, in my opinion – Hope that helps!
Whole chickpeas
Whole chickpeas are great in stews, star of the show in veggie burgers and salads. Chickpeas in my opinion is an underrated pulse in terms of how it’s used nowadays to accompany meals, maybe people just need more inspiration in general!
Some examples of foods using chickpeas:
Curry
Roasted (crunchy)
Sandwiches
Stews
Soups
Tacos
Are canned chickpeas the same as soaked?
This is an ideal choice for those who want a quick fix, and a cheaper alternative to dried chickpeas.
These require 8-12 hours of soaking before use, have more bite, are bigger and tastier than the canned alternative.
Stuff you can make with chickpeas
Once you go vegan, you start discovering more uses for the foods that were right under your nose! Get yourself a can of chickpeas and try one of these out for yourself.
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