Chickpeas

Click image to compare the actual-size chickpeas

These chickpeas all came from the same bin, but there seem to be two kinds mixed together: the familiar lumpy chickpea and these tiny little smoother guys, just half a shade darker. Can these possibly be the baby chickpeas used to make the Musbacha raved about in Paula Wolfert’s Mediterranean Grains and Greens? Can it be that while every other person on earth is searching for these fellas in all the world's hidden corners I get them by accident? Well, I suppose there are all kinds of chickpeas out there.

I am going to try to decorticate all the chickpeas (I just learned the word decorticate from the USDA chickpea website), because my friend Gil, who makes the best khumes on the planet, suggests that this step is worthwhile. Wolfert confirms this, but admits that she does not do so herself.

The larger seeds are surrendering their seed coats fairly willingly, but the little ones are a bit more difficult to peel.

Food and Drink, Recipes, Cooking, Food, Vegetarian, vegetables, vegan, chickpeas, beans, decortication, legumes