In praise of the healthy And versatile chickpea

You don’t need to be vegan or vegetarian to enjoy the many benefits of this versatile ingredient

From dairy-free desserts to eggless mayonnaise, the chickpea is the not-so-secret ingredient in many innovative foods.

A staple in India and the Middle East, the chickpea is versatile and has many benefits. This spring, Canadian farmers sowed the largest crop in 11 years (more than double last year’s) to meet the growing demand.

The health benefits, which range from weight management to reduced risk of chronic diseases including heart disease and Type 2 diabetes, are central to the global chickpea market’s growth, according to Food Dive.

High in protein (though not complete), chickpeas are a mainstay of vegan and vegetarian diets.

When ground into flour, they become a gluten-free alternative for making noodles, breads and other baked goods.

“Putting labels aside, people love chickpeas,” says author Heather Lawless.

“If you look at Google Trends, which shows how things are trending online, people are searching for chickpeas and they want to cook with them. They’re popular around the globe, they’re really healthy, environmentally friendly and very inexpensive.”

In The Chickpea Revolution Cookbook (Skyhorse Publishing, 2018), Lawless and co-author Jen Mulqueen outline the bean’s attributes and highlight its extraordinary versatility.

“I like all beans, but there’s something about the neutral colour and the neutral taste of chickpeas that make them extra special,” says Lawless.

“They can really shape-shift in a way that other beans can’t because of that,” adds Mulqueen, a culinary nutrition expert.

Whether using dried, canned, chickpea flour, aquafaba (the liquid leftover from cooked chickpeas) or chickpea pasta, the emphasis of the more than 85 plant-based recipes is on comfort foods that happen to be healthy and great for the planet.

“Out of all (the different forms of chickpeas), aquafaba is the most interesting and unique,” Lawless says.

“Different properties were discovered at different times but essentially in the culinary world, it’s new. And someone discovered that it would whip and someone else discovered it would bind.”

In the spirit of zero-waste cooking, the next time you crack open a can of chickpeas or cook up a batch of dried beans, reserve the leftover liquid.

Aquafaba can be whipped until fluffy and silken, and used just as you would whipped cream. Or beat it with sugar until stiff peaks form, add flavourings and bake for an egg-free meringue or add shredded coconut for macaroons.

Lawless and Mulqueen use aquafaba broadly in their cookbook — it appears in recipes for frothy cocktails, New Zealand pavlova, lemon meringue pie, mayonnaise and pasta e fagioli with “sneaky” blended chickpeas.

“It’s very, very simple to use. Just seeing with your own eyes how it transforms from a liquid into a whip is really breathtaking,” says Lawless.

“(A great starting point) is to start with a basic whip. Put it in a bowl, get your beaters out and spend 10 to 15 minutes and watch the peaks form. Add a little bit of sugar as you go and you’ve got a beautiful whipped cream.”