Hummus in Perspective: Chickpea Varieties

The secret for the perfect hummus is combining the best tahini with the right variety of chickpeas. But which one to use? The correct answer is #2.

I’ve been asked more than once already what kind of chickpeas is best for hummus, msabbha and other hummus-based dishes. The short answer is: the smallest you can find. This is the longer, more useful answer.

A few people said here us would be very helpful is I actually showed how propper chickpeas should look like. So there you are (better late etc.): a collection of my favorite legumes (tips: the one you want for your hummus is no. 2).

Chickpeas, ful and friends.

Legend:

[1] Mexican Chickpea. a.k.a Grabanzo Bean or Spanish Chickpea. This variety isn’t very good for hummus. It’s good other dishes, though, such as Greek chickpea soup, rice with chickpeas and other recipes I’ll share with you in the future.

[2] Middle-Eastern Chickpea. as you can see, this one is much smaller and has a darker complex. These chickpeas are the best for your hummus. Specifically, the bean in the picture is Hadas chickpea, an original Israeli variety (Hadas is the Hebrew name for myrtle). We also have a few “Baladi” (endemic) varieties, which have no formal names. The best in my opinion is the one called “the Bulgarian chickpea”, which is very similar only even smaller.

[3] Ful Masri (Egyptian Ful). a.k.a Fava Bean. This is the one you’d use for Hummus Ful, Ful Medames, and other dishes that originates from Egypt and possibly Yemen.

[4] Ful. a.k.a Broad Bean. A more familar variety of the Vicia faba family of legumes – the latters cousin. It is common in southern Europe and you can find it in Israel and most Middle-Eastern countries too, dried or raw, with or without the pods. Absolutely delicious, relatively easy to handle, but not suitable for hummus-ful.

Now, the objects on the left are not legumes. They are only there for perspective purposes. These are, in case you wondered: a Euro cent, Israeli NIS and Quarter coins; an AAA battery; a standard match and an AMD Phenom X3 CPU. Just a few things I had on my desk…

On the bottom there’s a closeup on both the Mexican Garbanzo bean and the Middle-Eastern Chickpea (on the left). You can click on both images to enlarge, BTW.

Chickpeas: Middle-eastern and Mexican

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April 22, 2008 | Filed Under The Science of Chickpea, World of Hummus | Tags: Tags: , ,

Comments

5 Responses to “Hummus in Perspective: Chickpea Varieties”

  1. [eatingclub] vancouver || js on July 6th, 2008 8:29 am

    I never knew there were so many kinds of chickpeas. Thanks.

  2. Becky on July 22nd, 2008 12:04 am

    Where can I find dried Middle-Eastern Chickpeas?

  3. kim turim on July 27th, 2008 7:22 am

    Hi everyone!!!!
    Middle eastern chickpeas can be found i new york at :
    Atlantic ave {george malko. sahadi…..
    Whole foods.
    Trader joes.
    Commodities health food store.
    Good food co op

    BE WELL!!!!!!
    rainer. susan. kim

  4. Experiment 1. Soaking the beans with and without baking soda « One Hand Clapping on February 14th, 2010 1:25 am

    [...] to humus101 web site I should use middle eastern beans for best results. Unfortunately, I don’t have these [...]

  5. sol on May 1st, 2010 5:08 am

    where can i find bulgarian garbanzo beans in usa(NJ/NY)

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