Chickpea

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{{Taxobox | color = lightgreen | name = Chickpea | image = Chickpea.jpg | image_caption = Left: Bengal variety; right: European variety | regnum = Plantae | divisio = Magnoliophyta | classis = Magnoliopsida | ordo = Fabales | familia = Fabaceae | genus = Cicer | species = C. arietinum | binomial = Cicer arietinum | binomial_authority = L. }}

The chickpea, chick pea, garbanzo bean, ceci bean, bengal gram or chana (Cicer arietinum) is an edible pulse of the family Fabaceae, subfamily Faboideae.

The plant is 20 to 50 cm high and has small feathery leaves on both sides of the stem. One seedpod contains two or three peas. The flowers are white- or reddish-blue. Chickpeas need a subtropical or tropical climate and more than 400 mm annual rain. They can be grown in a temperate climate, but yields will be much lower.

1 Cultivation and uses
- 1.1 History of cultivation
2 Etymology
3 Trivia

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Cultivation and uses

Several dozen distinct chickpea cultivars are grown. European cultivars are large (typically around 10 to 15 mm diameter) and most commonly pale yellow. There were several other cultivars, with black and reddish seeds that are rarely grown today. The black cultivar was mainly used as fodder. Asian cultivars are smaller (typically 5 to 8 mm) and dark brown in color. The chickpea is not known in a wild state. It is grown in the Mediterranean, western Asia and India. In India the plants are eaten as salad as well.

Chickpeas can be eaten in salads, cooked in stews, ground into a flour called gram flour (also known as besan, and used in Indian cuisine), ground and shaped in balls and fried as falafel, cooked and ground into a paste called hummus, or roasted, spiced and eaten as a snack, and as farinata. The plant can also be used as a green vegetable. In India, where they are referred to as "chana," chickpeas provide a major source of protein in a predominantly vegetarian culture. Chickpea flour is also used to make "Burmese tofu," a food originating with the Shan people of Burma. Unripe chickpeas are often picked out of its pod and eaten as a raw snack in many parts of India.

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History of cultivation

Domesticated chickpeas are first known from the aceramic levels of Jericho (PPNB) and Cayönü in Turkey and the pottery Neolithic in Hacilar, Turkey. They are found in the late Neolithic in Thessaly, at Kastanas, Lerna and Dimini at ca. 3500 BC. In the southern French cave of L'Abeurador Dept., Aude, chickpeas have been found in Mesolithic layers, dated by radiocarbon dating to 6790±90 BC.

By the Bronze age, they were known in Italy and Greece. In classical Greece, they were called erébinthos, and eaten both as a staple and as dessert, raw when young. The Romans knew several varieties known, for example venus-, ram- and punic chickpeas. They were eaten as a broth and roasted as a snack. The Roman gourmet Apicius gives several recipes for chickpeas. Carbonised chickpeas have been found at the Roman legionary fort at Neuss (Novaesium), Germany in layers of the 1st century AD, as well as rice.

Chickpeas are mentioned in Charlemagne's Capitulare de villis (ca. 800 AD) as cicer italicum, to be grown in each imperial demesne. Albertus Magnus knows three varieties: red, white, and black. According to Culpeper, "chick-pease or cicers" are less "windy" than peas and more nourishing; they are under the dominion of Venus and have a number of medical uses: they increase sperm and milk, provoke menstruation and urine, and are helpful against kidney stones. The wild cicers were thought to be especially potent.

Chickpeas were grown in some areas of Germany for use as a coffee substitute in the First World War.

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Etymology

The name "chickpea" derives eventually from the Latin name cicer through the French chiche. The name Cicero is derived from this plant. "Garbanzo" is from the Spanish language, an alteration (perhaps influenced by Old Spanish garroba or algarroba) of the Old Spanish arvanço, perhaps from Greek erebinthos.[1]

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