HWN Suggests

The cheap and versatile legume that can boost your gut, bone and heart health

For years, chickpeas have been relegated to the back of the cupboard. Only reached for to bulk up a stew cheaply or reluctantly stirred into dishes because we know we really should be getting more fibre in our diets. Times have changed and to our surprise, pulses have become pop stars in Britain – and chickpeas have taken centre stage. We’re seeing bags of them roasted and sprinkled with sea salt and paprika for extra crunch, blended into creamy hummus, popping up in spicy curries (or even sneaked into cakes and bakes). Few foods have seen such a dramatic makeover and it’s led to a sharp rise in popularity.

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Featured

 How Chickpeas Can Fix Soil and Feed Farmers

To help break that vicious cycle, Giller is harnessing the power of legumes. Beans, cowpea, chickpea, soybean, and others enrich the soil with life-giving nitrogen. Bacteria that live in nodules along the plant’s roots are able to transform the nitrogen in the air into the organic form plants need to grow. I caught up with him recently and asked him to explain.

 Your Hummus Habit Could Be Good For The Earth

Part of a subcategory of legumes called pulses, chickpeas — along with lentils, dry peas and several varieties of beans — have been a critical crop and foodstuff for centuries in Middle Eastern and Asian countries. The crops are so promising that the United Nations deemed 2016 the Year of Pulses to expand interest in these ancient foods and their potential to help solve dueling modern-day conundrums: hunger and soil depreciation.

Articles of Interest

A cup of chickpeas a day lowers cholesterol

The results spill the beans on how small changes to your diet can translate to meaningful changes in your health, says Indika Edirisinghe, a nutritionist at Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. “Just adding one cup of beans a day can make some big differences.”

Are Chickpea and Bean Pastas Good for You?

We asked experts about the health benefits of legume pasta — and how to make it taste good, too.

Are Chickpeas the New Chic Peas?

Bengal grams, garbanzos, Egyptian peas—the chickpea, by any of its names, is beloved. So much so that its main product, hummus, has become a source of contention between all the nations who argue that it was on their land that hummus was born.

Can Chickpeas and Lentils Help Control Diabetes?

They’re a common part of traditional diets in India and Latin America, but in western repasts, legumes or pulses — that’s lentils, dried beans, and chick peas — have generally been a culinary afterthought. That may soon change, however, thanks to new research suggesting legumes alone can improve the health of diabetics.

Chickpea Anxiety

Recipes for when you have lots of chickpeas (brown-butter chickpeas, chana masala) or just a little (taverna salad).

Chickpeas (and Hummus!) Have Anti-Aging Benefits

If you are not adding a handful of chickpeas to your daily salad, consider this a sign. After all, the benefits of eating chickpeas are numerous—not only are the ubiquitous Mediterranean legume rich in fiber and protein, but they may also help us maintain a healthy body weight and even contribute to longevity.

Chickpeas: Easy ways to eat more of this nutritious legume

Chickpeas provide 14.5 grams of plant-based protein per cup (cooked), making them a good choice for people looking to get more protein in their diets without eating more meat. They also provide 12.5 grams of dietary fiber per cup, which aids digestion, helps maintain a healthy gut microbiome, and can help keep you feeling fuller for longer after eating. Plus, they're relatively low in calories and contain 4 grams of fat (a mix of healthy monounsaturated and polyunsaturated) per cup. And, because they're low on the glycemic index, unlike refined carbohydrates, eating them will not cause blood sugar levels to spike.

Chickpeas: The Mediterranean’s Most Versatile Legume

Like all legumes, chickpeas are noteworthy for their high fiber content, and they’re a good source of protein, manganese and folate. Although all beans taste best if you cook them yourself, canned chickpeas are the best of all canned beans because of their inherent flavor and texture. They don’t even need aromatics when you cook them, and for many dishes you won’t need their broth.

How Healthy Are Chickpeas, Really?

From chickpea flour to chickpea pasta, this lil' legume is everywhere — and for good reason. Here, all of the garbanzo bean benefits and nutrition facts you need to know.

How Healthy Are Chickpeas?

If you want to incorporate more plants into your diet, these legumes are a good place to start.

Legume it may concern: the magical wonder of dried chickpeas

And they do have to be dried. There isn’t a canned chickpea anywhere in the world that tastes as good as the most average, nubbly little dried number that you found in a corner shop behind some nappies. There’s more textural variety in beans that you soak yourself – partly because some of them tenderise faster than others – as well as a subtlety and depth because of the stage at which you add salt.

Should I Eat Falafel?

But the benefits go far beyond plant-based protein. A 3.6-ounce portion of chickpeas—what’s in three falafel balls, roughly—gives you about 26% of the daily recommended fiber. “As a result, falafel can improve bowel function and decrease the absorbance of both cholesterol and simple sugars,” says Peter Zahradka, PhD, principal investigator in molecular physiology at the Canadian Centre for Agri-food Research in Health and Medicine at St. Boniface Hospital in Winnepeg.

The Nutritional Value and Health Benefits of Chickpeas and Hummus

Most Americans do not eat enough vegetables, and particularly legumes, each day, despite their well-established benefits for health. Traditional hummus is a nutrient-dense dip or spread made from cooked, mashed chickpeas, blended with tahini, olive oil, lemon juice, and spices. Consumers of chickpeas and/or hummus have been shown to have higher nutrient intakes of dietary fiber, polyunsaturated fatty acids, vitamin A, vitamin E, vitamin C, folate, magnesium, potassium, and iron as compared to non-consumers. Hummus consumers have also been shown to have higher Healthy Eating Index 2005 scores.

Resources

The Nutrition Source

Unlike many canned vegetables, canned chickpeas retain much of their nutritional value and are comparable to dried cooked versions.