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Beans & pulses

Chickpea

Cicer arietinumAlso called garbanzo bean, garbanzo beans and chick pea

Chickpeas are legume seeds that are soft when cooked. They can be boiled, simmered, blended into a paste, roasted, or used in stews. They pair with bread and rice.

  • Plant-based
  • Gluten-free
  • No listed allergens

About the plain ingredient, not packaged products; general information, not medical advice. Details

Part used
Seed
Family
Fabaceae
Texture
Soft
Cooked most in
Asia, Europe, Africa
Top country
Spain
Chickpea, whole

Photo: AlixSaz · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

In the kitchen

How to use chickpea

Typical ways to cook or use it

  • Boil simmer
  • Paste blend
  • Roast
  • Stew

Preparing it

For falafel, soak the chickpeas and grind them coarsely with herbs and spices.

Goes well with

Flavour

Taste and texture

Texture, cooked

  • Soft

Around the world

Where chickpea is cooked

12 dishes in the catalogue use chickpea. Here is where they come from.

Dishes by continent

Countries whose dishes use it most

Counts are catalogued dishes from each country that list chickpea among their ingredients.

Origins

  1. 3,300 BCE · Egypt

    Cultivation of domesticated chickpeas is documented in Egypt from 3300 BCE.

  2. 3,300 BCE · Egypt

    Chickpea cultivation is documented in Egypt from this date onward.

  3. -1750/-1500 · Southern Asia

    Archaeological evidence dates chickpea cultivation in the Indian subcontinent to this period.

  4. 1,400 BCE · Egypt

    Chickpea specimens dating to 1400 BCE were found at Deir el-Medina.

  5. The 1500s · Americas

    Spanish and Portuguese people brought chickpea cultivation to the Americas.

  6. The 1500s · Americas

    Spanish and Portuguese people introduced chickpea cultivation to the Americas.

  7. The 1700s · India and Afghanistan

    The Kabuli variety reached India from Afghanistan.

  8. 1793 · Europe

    A German writer recorded the use of roasted, ground chickpeas in place of coffee.

On the table

Dishes made with chickpea

9 of the 12 catalogued dishes that use it, spread across the countries they come from.

  • Arròs al forn

    Spain

  • Koshari

    Egypt

  • Dhokla

    India

  • Falafel

  • Balila

    Lebanon

  • Callos con garbanzos

    Türkiye

  • Doxave

  • Cocido

    Spain

  • Chana masala

    India

Dish lists come from Wikidata; a dish counts when its recorded ingredients include chickpea.

Good to know

Diet and allergens: chickpea in detail

These notes describe the plain ingredient. Packaged and prepared products vary, so read the label; for allergies and medical diets ask a doctor or dietitian.
Allergens
None of the 15 listed allergens foundChecked and not found: soy, eggs, fish, milk, lupin, wheat, celery, sesame, mustard, peanuts, molluscs, sulphites, tree nuts, crustaceans, gluten cereals.
Animal origin
No animal ingredients foundChecked and not found: egg, fish, meat, dairy, honey, insect, gelatin, poultry, bone char, shellfish, other animal, animal fining, animal rennet.
Gluten
None
Alcohol
None
Caffeine
None
Pork
None

Family

Related forms

Made from it
besan

Cooked together

Ingredients that go into the same catalogued dishes.
Photo credits for this page (8)

Around the world

What chickpea is called

Names in 39 languages, from Wikidata.

  • Spanish

    garbanzo · garbanzos · arvejas

  • French

    pois chiche · pois chiches

  • Italian

    cece

  • Portuguese

    grão-de-bico

  • German

    Kichererbse · Kichererbsen

  • Dutch

    kikkererwt · kikkererwten

  • Greek

    ρεβίθι

  • Turkish

    nohut

  • Russian

    нут · турецкий горох

  • Polish

    ciecierzyca

  • Arabic

    حمص شائع

  • Hebrew

    גרגרי חומוס

Show all 39 languages

  • Basque

    txitxirio

  • Belarusian (Taraskievica orthography)

    нут

  • Bulgarian

    нахут

  • Burmese

    ကုလားပဲ

  • Catalan

    cigró · cigrons · ciuró

  • Cebuano

    garbanso · garbanzo

  • Croatian

    slanutak

  • Czech

    cizrna

  • Danish

    kikært · kikærter

  • Esperanto

    kikersemo · kikero

  • Estonian

    kikerhernes

  • Finnish

    kikherne · kahviherne

  • Galician

    garavanzo

  • Gujarati

    ચણા

  • Hungarian

    csicseriborsó

  • Irish

    piseánach

  • Japanese

    ひよこ豆 · ヒヨコマメ · ヒヨコ豆

  • Latvian

    aunazirņi

  • Lithuanian

    avinžirniai

  • Malay

    kacang kuda

  • Malayalam

    കടല

  • Norwegian Nynorsk

    kikert

  • Romanian

    năut · grãos-de-bico

  • Shan

    ထူဝ်ႇႁူဝ်ၸၢင်ႉ

  • Slovenian

    čičerika

  • Swedish

    kikärt · kikärter · kikärtor

  • Ukrainian

    нут

Photos

More photos of chickpea

Sources and credits

Data

  • GlobeCooks editorial: descriptions, kitchen notes and classification, written by GlobeCooks from checked sources
  • Wikidata: names, classification and dishes (CC0 1.0)
  • Wikimedia Commons: photos
  • Wikipedia (English) (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Wikidata item: Q21156930

Photos

Photo: AlixSaz · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Photo: Thamizhpparithi Maari · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Photo: Thamizhpparithi Maari · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Photo: Gaurav Dhwaj Khadka · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Photo: Jim Lukach · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons