youryum

Chickpeas, tinned and dried

Also called garbanzo beans, ceci

The most useful thing in the cupboard: 8.9 g of protein and 7.6 g of fibre per 100 g cooked, and it keeps for years.

8.9 g protein 3 recipes here use it

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Dried chickpeas in a bowl
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The numbers

Nutrition per 100 g, cooked, no salt
NutrientAmount% RI
Calories 164 kcal —
Protein 8.9 g 18%
Carbs 27.4 g —
Fibre 7.6 g 30%
Fat 2.6 g —
Iron 2.9 mg 21%
Folate 172 µg 86%

Source: USDA FoodData Central · FDC ID 173757 · % RI against EU adult reference intakes.

Buying and keeping

What to look for at the shop, and how to make it last once it is home.

How to pick

  • Tinned: the label should read chickpeas, water, salt. Firming agents such as calcium chloride keep them stubbornly firm no matter how long you simmer them.
  • Shake the tin. A dull thud means it is packed tight, and you will get more chickpeas and less water for the same money.
  • Dried: buy from a shop with turnover. Chickpeas more than about two years old never fully soften, and nothing on the bag will warn you.
  • Larger dried chickpeas hold their shape through long cooking. Small ones break down into something closer to a purée, which is what you want for hummus and not for a salad.
  • Kabuli chickpeas are the pale ones most recipes assume. Desi, the small dark variety, cook faster and taste nuttier, and are worth seeking out.

How to store

  • Dried: airtight, dark, cool. Two years for good texture, edible well beyond that if you accept a longer cook.
  • Tinned and unopened: years. Check the seam for rust or bulging and bin anything swollen.
  • Opened tin: decant into a container with the liquid, not left in the metal. Three days in the fridge.
  • Cooked chickpeas freeze perfectly. Freeze them in their cooking liquid and they will not dry out or wrinkle.
  • Never store dried pulses above the oven. Heat cycling is what ages them fastest.

If you have none

Swaps that hold up, with what changes when you use them.

Cannellini beans One for one in stews and soups. Creamier, breaks down faster.
Butter beans Bigger and softer. Good in traybakes, poor in anything you want texture from.
Green lentils Works in soups. Cooks faster, so add them later.

The bicarbonate trick

A quarter teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda per litre of soaking water raises the pH, which breaks down pectin in the cell walls and lets water in faster. Chickpeas soaked this way cook in roughly two thirds of the time and end up creamier.

Too much and they go to mush and taste faintly of soap. A quarter teaspoon is the whole trick, and it is worth measuring rather than eyeballing.

Aquafaba is not waste

The liquid in the tin whips like egg white. It is starch and dissolved protein, and it will hold air well enough for a meringue, a mayonnaise or the foam on a cocktail.

Two tablespoons is roughly one egg white.

The liquid from home-cooked chickpeas does the same job and tastes better because you seasoned it. Freeze it in an ice cube tray and you have egg-white substitute on demand, which is more useful than it sounds if anyone in the house does not eat eggs.

Why they sometimes stay hard

Age is the answer nine times out of ten. Very hard water and salting the water early both slow things a little, and neither explains a pot that has simmered for two hours and gone nowhere.

If you suspect old stock, the bicarbonate soak is the only thing that reliably helps. It will not rescue a bag that has been in a warehouse since the last decade.

Questions

Do I need to rinse tinned chickpeas?
Rinsing removes roughly a third of the sodium and the slightly metallic taste of the canning liquid. For anything where the chickpeas are the star, rinse. For a stew where they simmer in something strongly flavoured for half an hour, it matters much less.
Why are my dried chickpeas still hard after two hours?
Almost always age. Chickpeas that have sat in a warehouse for years will not soften properly no matter how long you boil them. Hard water and early salting make it slightly worse, but age is the real cause.
How much dried equals a 400 g tin?
A tin drains to about 240 g, which is roughly 120 g dried. Very few recipes tell you this and it is the number you need when converting.
Can I cook them without soaking?
Yes, in about two hours instead of one. The outside tends to be softer than the middle by the time it is done, which matters for a salad and not for a soup.
Are chickpeas and garbanzo beans the same thing?
The same plant, Cicer arietinum. Garbanzo is the Spanish name and the one American labels usually use.

Recipes using chickpeas

3 on the site so far.

All recipes →
Roast chicken thighs on a tray with peppers and chickpeas
Traybakes

Harissa roast chicken traybake

Chicken thighs roasted on top of chickpeas and red peppers, so the fat renders down into everything underneath. One tray, one wash-up.

28 July 2026 1 hr