11 November 2019

The versatility of chickpeas

With so many delicious vegetarian and vegan recipes available now, there are a huge variety of pulses on offer to give extra protein and fibre to your dishes and we’ve been discovering the huge versatility of chick peas.

We supply both tinned organic chick peas and dried organic chick peas. The dried ones need soaking overnight before cooking so need a little more time planning and the tinned ones are ready to use. You’ll find that different recipes call for each variety.

Not only can they be puréed into a delicious hummus; roasted for a tasty snack; soaked in a stew or simply added to a fresh salad but you can use the juice from the chick pea tin to make delicious meringues! Yes white, fluffy meringues that taste and look fabulous. The juice is known as aquafaba and is the liquid remaining once the chick peas have been cooked. It is an excellent vegan alternative for egg whites and can be used to make everything from brownies to scrambled eggs.

Here are a few of our chick pea favourite recipes for you to try:

Roasted

Instead of reaching for the crisps today, how about making your own healthy snack of oven-roasted chickpeas? We used a tin of chickpeas that were drained, rinsed and dried thoroughly on kitchen paper before tossing in 1 tbsp olive oil and 2 tsp of Chermoula spice blend and roasting in a hot oven for 30 minutes. Why not experiment with other spice blends for a different flavour?

Stewed

Try making a chick pea tagine using our Fajita Seasoning blend? Delicious as a stew served with rice or couscous but equally tasty stuffed into pancakes and served with natural yoghurt or baked in the oven covered with cheese.

Puréed

Hummus is the easiest thing to make with a tin of chick peas but have you thought of adding some harissa to spice it up a little? Do try our Sumac stuffed peppers with harissa houmous for something a bit different.

Salads

Chick peas are a wholesome addition to many salads, especially summery ones with a little red onion and a zingy dressing. How about trying this delicious alternative for a Smashed Ranch Chickpea Salad from Kellie Anderson of Food to Glow which uses a quick and easy ranch dressing to create a very tasty pitta filling.

Falafel

Sabrina Ghayour’s delicious Chickpea & Vegetable Koftas with Tahini sauce from her latest book Bazaar are the perfect way introduction to making your own falafel at home. "As someone already had the idea of inventing falafel wraps, I came up with this lighter version”, says Sabrina, “which is absolutely delicious, packs in the vegetables and can easily be adapted to suit whatever you have in the fridge. With all the appeal of an indulgent kebab, these koftas are incredibly moreish on their own with a drizzle of tahini sauce on top."

Bazaar by Sabrina Ghayour is published by Mitchell Beazley, £26 (www.octopusbooks.co.uk). Photography by Kris Kirkham. 

Curried

Our Chana Masala curry powder is a mild blend of organic spices ideally suited to pulses and vegetables and used traditionally as a chickpea dish. Based on the street curries of Delhi, with organic coriander and organic cumin seeds at its heart and full of sweet spices - organic cardamom and organic cinnamon - it also has a little heat from some organic cayenne pepper spice.

Meringues!

Simply drain your tin of chick peas, reserving the juice, or aquafaba, in a bowl. Weigh the liquid and then measure out the double amount of caster sugar (i.e. 60g of juice = 120g of sugar). Whisk the juice in a large bowl with an electric whisk until it forms stiff peaks (it will take longer than egg whites). Then add in the sugar in small amounts, making sure to combine fully before adding more. Once fully combined, use to make pavlovas or meringues as required.