Recipes With Green Garbanzo Beans

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The pods are pale green and downy, and the bright beans within are tender and crisp. You can eat them straight out of the shell, or toss them into any number of dishes.

Put out a bowl of them, pan-roasted or steamed, and they’ll disappear in a flash as everyone grabs one after another. Their flavor is distinctive and vibrant, reminiscent of a just-picked pea. Where have they been all our lives?

Spiced Fresh Garbanzos

Until recently, fresh garbanzos have shown up in very limited supply at farmers markets. Now you can find them in several supermarkets in greater abundance.

Robert Gadsby of Noe in downtown L.A. adds fresh garbanzos to soup, risotto and even a tuna sashimi plate. At Water Grill, David LeFevre’s summer plans include making a fresh garbanzo bean cake garnished with garbanzo sprouts, and combining fresh garbanzos, pomegranate seeds and grilled octopus or stuffed calamari. And Suzanne Goin of AOC has grilled salmon topped with a salad of fresh garbanzos, purslane, green onions and lemon.

Chris Kidder, executive chef of Literati II in Brentwood, adds the beans to fritto misto (fried mixed vegetables) and makes a salad of fresh garbanzos, tomato, fennel and black olive bread.

Mediterranean Inspired Garbanzo And Green Bean Salad

“We wanted to have a summery, light dish incorporating things that were just coming into season, like the garbanzos and tomatoes, with other ingredients we had on hand, like the olive bread, ” says Kidder. It’s a serendipitous dish.

Fresh garbanzos are also hassle-free, especially if you buy them already shelled. Unlike dried beans, they don’t require hours of soaking and boiling.

You can find fresh shelled garbanzos, which are also called chickpeas, at Whole Foods stores while they’re in season in California, through October. After that, the harvest moves to central Mexico until spring, when the California season begins again, says Morgan Murray, general manager of grower Califresh, based in Sanger.

Chickpeas And Green Beans With Balsamic Mushrooms

At farmers markets and Latino markets such as Cardenas and Numero Uno, you’ll often find beans still in the shell. They’re also available that way at Food 4 Less stores.

If you need to cook a big batch of shucked beans but can get them only in the pods, be sure to give yourself enough time to shell the lot. It’s easy work but just takes a little time.

“There is something fun about working with the fresh form of an ingredient that we use so often dried, ” Goin says, “and they seem very old-school Southern California to me.... I remember driving by fields and fields of them in the summer when I was a kid.”

Sweet And Sour Chickpeas And Green Beans

Cooking with fresh garbanzos is just starting to become widespread here, but they have a long history in Mexico and India. Nalin Patel, owner of Maurya Indian restaurant in Beverly Hills, says they’re popular in his native Gujarat, where one might eat them roasted in the shell over a wood fire or combined with onion, chile, cilantro, lime juice and salt as an appetizer with drinks.

When Maurya’s executive chef, Jayanta Paul, cooks at home, he likes to make fresh garbanzos with mushrooms in a Punjabi-style tomato sauce. It’s hearty enough to serve as a main dish, says Paul, who is from Calcutta. Indian bread or rice is a good accompaniment.

For a summer dish, I added fresh garbanzos to Mexican calabacitas, a combination of squash, corn, tomatoes and green chiles. The garbanzos make this colorful dish even more appealing.

Sweet And Sour Chickpeas

Add the olive oil to a 10-inch nonstick skillet. Add the beans in one layer to the skillet; cover. On medium-high heat, toast the covered pods for 4 to 5 minutes, until the bottoms of the pods turn black and the tops turn bright green.

Remove the pods from the pan and season with salt. Serve warm, allow ing diners to peel the pods as with peanuts or edamame.Fresh or raw garbanzo beans ( green chickpeas ) don't come along very often.  This green chickpea recipe is about how to cook fresh garbanzo beans by shelling them from the pod, boiling for a couple minutes and then tossing with olive oil and favorite spices or herbs.

Find fresh green garbanzo beans in the grocery store or farmers market in the spring or summer. In Charleston, I find them at Whole Foods. Call ahead and ask the produce department if they have them in stock.

Fried Green Chickpeas

Fresh chickpeas taste like classic beans. They are hearty, earthy, and nutty. They are firmer than green peas and also a little bit grainy compared to a butter bean or kidney bean.

Look for fresh plump green chickpea pods that don't have brown spots or wilting. The fresh green chickpea pod is plump and slightly fuzzy. The chickpea pod is not edible.

Shelled garbanzo beans or green chickpeas can be eaten fresh and raw but they are a little tough.  I suggest boiling them or pan frying them for a couple minutes to get them a bit more tender.

Chickpea Green Bean Salad

Cooking the chickpeas is fast and easy but shelling the beans means putting in the work. Think of it as therapeutic meditation. You can not rush it. Be with the bean!

You can also throw the whole garbanzo bean pod (with shell) into boiling water and eat as a snack like edamame that is still in the pod.

One comment from a reader (see comments below) said that they grew chickpeas growing up and would just pick and eat them raw.

Green Garbanzo Beans Pilaf Recipe

Don't have time for fresh chickpeas or can't find them?  Cool - open a can of chickpeas and enjoy this Romaine and Chickpea Salad. 

YUP! Chickpeas that are fresh and green can be eaten raw (if young and tender). They can also be frozen for later (like green peas), or steamed / cooked for a couple minutes.

Find them in the spring to summer - around April to July. Look for them in your grocery store or at the farmers market.

Green Chickpea Hummus

Chickpeas are freshly harvested when they are green. They should still be soft enough to eat raw or with a quick boil or pan fry.

Brown chickpeas are harvested later and canned. Dark brown hard chickpeas have been dried and, like all dry beans, need to still be cooked / boiled for a long time.

Fresh or raw garbanzo beans ( green chickpeas ) don't come along very often.  This recipe is all about how to cook them by shelling them from the pod, boiling for a couple minutes and then tossing with olive oil and your favorite spices or herbs.

Fresh Garbanzo Beans With Sea Salt

You can also throw the whole green chickpea pod (with shell) into boiling water and eat as a snack like edamame that is still in the pod.