the.com/chickpea
A bean so versatile it moonlights as hummus, flour, meat, and even egg.
means A round, beige legume from the pea family, eaten worldwide whole, ground into flour, or blended into dishes like hummus and falafel.
from From Latin 'cicer' (the chickpea plant), which gave Old French 'chiche'; English long called it 'chich pea,' and over time 'chich' was reshaped into the familiar 'chick' — nothing to do with baby birds, just a sound-alike drift. Fun footnote: the Roman statesman Cicero's family name traces to this very bean.
- Ancient diet
- Cultivated for over 10,000 years in the Middle East
- Faux egg
- Its canning liquid, aquafaba, whips like egg whites
- Two faces
- Kabuli are pale; desi are small and dark
- Fake coffee
- Roasted chickpeas were brewed as wartime coffee
- Name origin
- Latin cicer named the orator Cicero's family
kabuli chickpea — large cream-colored variety from afghanistan/india, accounts for 80% of global chickpea production
desi chickpea — small dark brown variety native to india, primary staple in south asian cuisine for millennia
hummus — levantine chickpea paste, staple throughout middle east and mediterranean since at least 1500s