Use Your Chickpea Cans on These Recipes, From Hummus to Pasta and More

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At the grocery store, I am a wide-eyed baby with a wholly undeveloped sense of object permanence. What do I have at home? Your guess is as good as mine. It wouldn’t hurt to grab a can of beans, you know, just in case the reserves are low.

Well, peekaboo. At present writing, there are nine cans of chickpeas in my pantry. (There is also one can of Great Northern white beans and one can of refried beans for good measure. I am, terrifyingly, out of black beans.)

No other ingredient lines my shelves in such quantities; chickpeas are the linchpin of so many satisfying, delicious under-30-minute meatless meals. This affliction — we like to call it chickpea anxiety over here — extends to many readers of The Veggie. “I do the exact same thing!” a reader wrote me last year. “And why not other beans that can fill out a meal just as well?”

This week, I’m taking this dilemma to the small screen (rotate that phone, sweetie) in the latest episode of our Veggie video series. With a surplus of chickpeas, your options range from the obvious to the unexpected.

I have a few suggestions, of course. Sheela Prakash’s roasted chickpeas make a great snack out of the oven, or use them to top Becky Hughes’s vegan Caesar salad. Having roasted chickpeas handy will shave a good 10 minutes off your cook time. Time is money! And money is for buying more chickpeas, evidently.

I could eat Kenji López-Alt’s marinated chickpeas on their own with a spoon — in fact, I did — but they may better serve you in a grain bowl. Or, as Kenji writes, “you could also stir together equal parts marinated chickpeas and diced fresh cucumber with some slivered red onions and chopped fresh dill, or massage some chopped kale with olive oil and a pinch of salt, then toss in a big scoop of marinated chickpeas and some crumbled feta or Cotija.” Quick, write that down.

Mark Bittman’s five-star hummus doesn’t need much introduction or explanation. You know what a dip is. But perhaps you hadn’t thought of it as a shortcut to a creamy, vegan weeknight pasta, à la Christian Reynoso. His lemony hummus pasta is so smart, using a handful of staples to produce something luscious and tremendously adaptable. Add roasted vegetables! Sprinkle over your favorite nuts or bread-crumb topping! Go on, add those roasted chickpeas!

But most often, when I’m staring down the barrel of a chickpea-loaded cannon, I go straight to Ali Slagle’s curry tomatoes and chickpeas with cucumber yogurt. It requires no planning on my part, as it comprises a handful of ingredients you can guarantee I have handy. It is one of my favorite dishes to make when I have a friend over for a last-minute dinner, as you can prep, cook and talk without needing to peek at the recipe again and again. It’s just that easy.

I should’ve told you sooner to save the liquid in the cans, while you’re at it, because now we’ve reached the “unexpected” portion of our program. That’s aquafaba, and I’d like to make the case for using it in your cooking, if you aren’t already. Would you be able to tell the difference between an aquafaba-based D.I.Y. vegan mayonnaise and the eggy stuff? What about a midnight fizz made frothy with aquafaba versus the classic made with egg whites? We put the two to the test in the studio, and I was wowed by the results.