How to Make Chickpea Flour?

Learn how to make chickpea flour at home by following just two steps. And, if you have a high-speed blender or a grain mill like me, then the entire process just takes 10-minutes. In the end, you will have freshly made, nourishing and gluten-free chickpea flour ready for your everyday cooking.

Disclosure: I have received the WonderMill grain mill to try and review. All the opinions are purely mine.

The type of flours available today can be seriously overwhelming, however, there are only a few that fall under the "gluten-free" and "healthy" category. Normally, keto and low-carb dieters use nut-based flours as a flour substitute. However, those with nut allergies can not use that. One of the easily available, gluten-free and protein-packed flour is the chickpea flour, which is a healthy and balanced choice for vegans, non-vegans and gluten-free people looking for a healthy flour for everyday baking or cooking. And, for your information, this nut-free, plant-based flour has a serious nutritional punch when compared to other everyday flours, including wheat flour, all-purpose flour, and bleached bread flour. In addition, chickpea flour has fewer calories, more protein, and comparatively fewer carbs.

One of the easily available, gluten-free and protein-packed flour is the chickpea flour, which is a healthy and balanced choice for vegans, non-vegans and gluten-free people looking for a healthy flour for everyday baking or cooking.

• Whole wheat: 408 calories, 3g fat, 86g carbohydrates, 16g protein
• Chickpea: 356 calories, 6g fat, 53g carbohydrates, 21g protein

Prepared from milled or ground chickpeas, the ultra-fine besan or chickpea flour is super versatile and can be used in numerous recipes. Indians use chickpea flours a lot, and probably in everyday cooking. If you want chickpea flour, then your local health food shops or online stores are the right places to look for. Or, you can just buy some chickpeas and follow the process to make some amazing homemade chickpea flour that I am going to show you. 

I strongly suggest using a high-speed blender or a grain mill for this recipe. However, if you don't have any of these, you can always use a food processor to make some homemade chickpea flour.  

What is Chickpea Flour?

Chickpea flour is what it sounds like. Yes, it is the flour made from dry chickpeas or garbanzo beans. If you are looking for chickpea flour and found a bag of garbanzo bean flour, then pick it as both are the same thing. In India, chickpea flour is also made from split peas, yellow Bengal gram or channa daal and black chickpeas. The Bengal gram flour has a similar texture to the chickpea flour, but a finer and smoother texture. Split pea flour, however, has a grainer texture very similar to the Chickpea flour.

We Indians also use dry roasted chickpeas to make a roasted gram flour. When I say "dry roasted," that doesn't necessarily mean the oven-roasted chickpeas. It is actually a roasted version of dehydrated black chickpeas. Roasted gram flour, however, has very limited use in Indian cooking. Often, it is used as a curry thickener, in chutneys and in making spicy edible powders.

Chickpea flour is widely used in Indian cooking. We make pancakes, pakora, and a variety of snacks using this recipe. Apart from its wide usage in savory dishes, the flour is also used in making desserts. Yes, there are tons of desserts in the Indian cuisine that uses chickpea flour.

Here I have a few recipes made from chickpea flour:

• Chickpea flour waffles
• Rainbow Khandvi made from chickpea flour
• Socca 
• Baked Sev
• Instant Pot Kadhi
  

Making your own flour is an experience in itself. These are unbelievably easy to make and you can customize the texture as well. High-speed blenders or grain mills work best for making homemade flours. However, if you don't have one, then make use of a food processor and strain the flour every time you process a batch.

Another reason to make homemade flour is that you can maintain the quality. I always wash my lentils or chickpeas, sun dry them for a few hours and then mill them. In that way, I know the chickpea flour I made is clean and of high-quality. 

Wondermill team gave me an opportunity to try, use and review one of their high-speed grain mills. This grain mill is highly powerful and has three settings to make your flour. The pastry setting makes super-fine flour, whereas the coarse and bread setting makes little grainy mills. Using and cleaning this mill is super easy. The mill comes with an attachment that connects to a separate container. When you grind the grains, the flour gets simultaneously collected in the container. Later, you can seal the container and use it to store the flour as well.

Chickpea Flour vs. Besan - What's the difference?

Let's go over this again and in detail now. As we discussed before, chickpeas are whole garbanzo beans and split gram or yellow gram is Bengal gram chana dal or lentil. Chickpea flour can also be made from black chickpeas, roasted chickpeas or a mixture of both chickpeas. However, besan can only be made from gram flour or split peas flour. Chickpeas flour and besan have a very similar texture, flavor, and nutritional info. The chana dal is from the black chickpeas after the grains are hulled and split. When the husked and split black chickpea is ground to a flour, it is called Besan or Gram flour.

How to make chickpea flour?

The process is simple, straightforward and takes less than 10-minutes. Things you will need are:

Ingredients:

a good-quality blender or food/grain mill, dried chickpeas, dried chana dal(for besan), or dried kala chana or black chickpeas, A sieve or shifter

Method:

Clean and Sun-dry:

It's an optional step, but I prefer to do it. Wash and clean chickpeas or lentils till the water runs clear. Evenly spread the wet grains on a clean cloth or slotted tray and sundry them for 2 hours to 6 hours till the grains feel completely dry and hard as before.

Roast:

This is also an optional step and I seldom do it. However, roasting does give a nice aroma to the freshly made flour. If choosing to roast, then roast the chickpeas slowly under low-heat on a large pan. Make sure to stir continuously to avoid burning. Once the grains feel hot, stop roasting and transfer them to a baking sheet or tray to cool them down.

Grind/Process:

Connect your Wondermill grain mill to the container using the tube attachment. Now switch on the mill and let it run for a few seconds. Set the mode to fine/pastry. Now, add a cup of chickpeas and keep on adding chickpeas till the flour canister is full. Let the grain mill run a few seconds after the grains are milled. Turn the machine off.

Now open the canister after tapping it from all the sides and from the top. Open carefully to avoid a flour spill. Use fresh homemade chickpeas flour just the way you want.

Is Chickpea Flour Healthy?

Chickpea flour is gluten-free and a healthier alternative to white, bleached flour. This flour has a higher amount of protein and fibers than whole-wheat and all-purpose flours. Hence, chickpea flour is healthy in general.

Is Chickpea Flour Good For Diabetics?

Chickpea flour has a low glycemic index than all-purpose flours, which is why it can be a good option for people with diabetes. Here is an article on the health benefits of chickpea flour. Chickpea flour has both protein and carbs.

Can I Use Chickpea Flour Instead of All-Purpose Flour?

Chickpea flour is a good substitute for white flour in baking and cooking. You can substitute one cup of all-purpose flour with ¾ cup of chickpea flour.

📖 Recipe