At the beginning of our plant-based journey, I had never cooked or eaten a lot of legumes other than soy-based products. This was not because I was avoiding them, I just was not exposed to them. I grew up in a Malaysian Chinese household and our staples were curries, stir-fries, rice and noodles. This journey has really challenged me to explore the different ways to use new ingredients. I have discovered that my favourite plant-based protein (so far) are chickpeas.

Chickpeas (garbanzo beans) are part of the legume family. They have been around in the Middle East for thousands of years. In Australia, the first commercial crop of chickpea was grown in Goondiwindi in the early 1970s. Nowadays, chickpeas are grown in New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia. There are two main types of chickpeas: Kabuli and Desi. In northern regions of Australia, majority of chickpea production is focused on Desi. According to Pulse Australia, Australia is the world’s largest exporter of Desi chickpea. Desi chickpea predominately contributes to 90% of total chickpea production in Australia. Of our total chickpea production, we export 95% of our production yield to Asia, North America and Europe.

Chickpeas are a nutrient rich source of fibre and protein. They have a low glycemic index and fewer calories than most animal proteins. However, chickpeas are not considered to be a “complete” protein as they don’t supply adequate amounts of all the essential amino acids in one serving. So, what is an essential amino acid? It is an amino acid that our body cannot produce, instead, it is supplied through our diet. Did you know that our body needs 20 different amino acids to grow and function properly? However, there are only 9 amino acids that are considered essential. The 11 other amino acids, our body can produce by itself. Within a plant-based diet, there are a number of food options that contain all the essential amino acids: soy-based products, quinoa, chia seeds and hemp seeds.

I love chickpeas! They are super versatile and a great replacement for meat in vegetarian, vegan or plant-based diets. However, to source all the essential amino acids within a plant-based diet, we need to eat complementary proteins. We can eat a combination of foods together to achieve a “complete” protein. A good example of this is a bowl of beans/chickpea with rice or hummus with pita.

Chickpeas are super affordable and easily found at the local supermarket: dried chickpea, canned chickpea and chickpea flour (besan flour).

Here are some of my favourite plant-based recipes based around chickpea:

• Hummus (Dried and canned chickpea)

• Falafel (Dried and canned chickpea)

• Chickpea and Kale Curry (Canned chickpea)

• Spinach Tortillas (Chickpea flour)

• Zucchini and Lemon Soccata (Chickpea flour)

• Aquafaba Mayonnaise (Canned chickpea liquid)

Stay tuned! I will share some of my favourite chickpea recipes in my future posts.