Chickpeas

Kabuli chana is the large, cream coloured chickpea used across India, Pakistan, the Middle East and the Mediterranean. Punjabi chole cooks it dark and tangy, often with a tea bag or dried amla for colour; South Indian sundal tempers boiled chickpeas with mustard seed, curry leaves and fresh coconut; hummus and falafel start from the same dried bean. It sits in beans and chickpeas alongside the smaller brown kala chana.

Standard chickpeas suit everyday curries, while jumbo chickpeas are larger and meatier, the ones that look best in a restaurant style chole or a chickpea salad. Soak them in three times their volume of water for eight hours or overnight; they roughly double in size. Pressure cook for five or six whistles, or simmer for about an hour and a half, until one crushes easily between your fingers.

For falafel, do not cook the chickpeas at all: grind them soaked and raw with herbs, onion and cumin, or the mix will fall apart in the oil. Cooked chickpeas freeze well in their liquid, so a large bag can be cooked in one go and portioned. When time is short, see tinned chickpeas, and for chickpea flour, besan.