Falafel

Next stop on our chickpea journey is the falafel, a dish that many have eaten and is popular around the world. Israel claims the falafel as its national dish, but the Palestinians may disagree. Originally made with fava beans, the falafel is a common street food across Israel where it is served in pita bread with salad and a range of condiments including hummus, tahini and hot sauce. You can even find street vendors including fries into the pita sandwich.

These falafel are made from a spiced chickpea batter rolled into balls and fried in hot oil for 3-4 minutes until they are browned and crisp and crunchy on the outside. We served these in a pita with hummus and a salad of tomato, cucumber, capsicum, mint, parsley, green onion and lemon juice.

Channa Masala

Chickpeas play a role in cuisines across the Middle East, but perhaps feature most prominently in Indian dishes. The Indian dish I have chosen to cook this week is a Punjabi favourite, Channa Masala.

The dish itself consists of Indian style chickpeas, or Kala Channa, which are darker in colour and slightly nuttier in flavour than the chickpeas we are used to eating in Australia and in the west. Tomato, onion, ginger and garlic are added as well but as with most Indian dishes the heart of the dish lies with the blend of spices. I made my own garam masala with whole spices, but you can use a pre-mixed spice. In addition to the garam masala, channa masala is also added. I bought this from an Indian grocer rather than making it as it contains some rarer ingredients such as salt dried mango and ground pomegranate seeds. These ingredients add a tartness to the curry that makes it zing when it hits your tongue and really set this apart from many other curries I have eaten. I served this dish with Indian roti but any Indian bread would be fine.

Nohut Yahnisi

Chickpeas have been a part of Turkish food for thousands of years and the region is one of the few places where wild chickpeas can be found today. With this in mind I have decided to start the week with a Turkish dish. The dish I chose was a simple chickpea stew called Nohut Yahnisi. The stew combines chickpeas, tomato and spinach spiced with fennel seeds, cumin, fresh mint and dill.

The chickpeas provide a soft crunch and a subtle nutty flavour and really form the substance to the stew. The fresh tomatoes provided a wonderful acid balance to the dish which would also be heightened with the addition of natural yoghurt and a squeeze of lemon. One of the real stars of this dish however is the fennel seeds. The seeds provide an underlying aniseed flavour that really holds the dish together without taking over. The addition of fresh herbs at the end of the dish provides a brightness in flavour that lightens and lifts the dish. Balance is the key here and this dish combines these simple elements perfectly.

Chickpeas

So after a short delay, largely due to my burgeoning social life and a general lack of direction, I am back and the ingredient for this week is...CHICKPEAS.

Chickpeas are one of the oldest domesticated crops in the world. Archaeologists have found evidence of domesticated chickpeas dating back to 3500BCE in Jericho, and what is now Turkey. From Turkey and the Middle East the domestication of chickpeas spread west into Greece and across Europe and south east into the Indian subcontinent.

There are two main types of domesticated chickpeas: Desi, which are cultivated predominately in India and Iran, and Kabuli which are found in southern Europe and parts of northern Africa. However, there are 21 varieties found in a range of colours and shapes. Chickpeas are also known by a wide variety of names including garbanzo bean, Indian pea, ceci bean, bengal gram, Kabuli chana, kadale kaalu, sanaga pappu, shimbra and Kadala.

Chickpeas and chickpea flour are today used widely across the world in a variety of cuisines. It forms a staple of the Indian diet in a range of dishes in both in their whole form and as Bengal gram or chickpea flour. They form the key ingredient in humus and falafel, which is a favorite street food across the Middle East. Chickpeas have also not escaped the famous cuisines of Europe, finding their way into southern Italian dishes such as panelle and Spanish stews where pulses play a common role.