Fresh Chickpeas

A seasonal delight, particularly for Lebanese children

Even though most of us live in a world where most produce is available all year round, there are still countries that follow the seasons and I am fortunate enough to spend a lot of time in two of them, Sicily and Lebanon, and I flew into Beirut right in time for fresh chickpea season — in fact, even though many in Sicily grow chickpeas, no one I know of eats them fresh but I will work on changing this given that all those growers have to do is harvest some a little earlier. I also now know how they dry them thanks to my great friend, Mary Taylor Simeti who told me that they uproot the plants and let them dry in the field before breaking the pods open to release the dried chickpeas. By the way, often individual pods contain two chickpeas nestled against each other.

Anyhow, to go back to my arrival in Lebanon and fresh chickpea season. I got into the taxi at the airport to go to my mother’s in Ballouneh, up in the mountains some half hour drive from Beirut, and just before getting there, I spotted a guy by the roadside with bunches of fresh chickpeas hanging from the open boot of his car. I asked the driver to stop so that I could buy some and he very kindly did. We both agreed that it was unusual for such a vendor to be where he was. They are usually up north or in the poorer areas of the city such as Ouza3i. He had obviously harvested them himself as he was bunching up in manageable ‘bouquets’ from a large pile inside the boo. When I was a kid, my mother would buy me and my siblings a bunch each and we would sit on the balcony, popping pod after pod open to uncover one or two green chickpeas which we popped in our mouth. It was one of my summer delights. It still is except that now I don’t have the patience to go through a whole bunch. I get tired after a few sprigs and never finish eating a whole bunch like I did when I was young.

In the photo above, I have put the sprigs already podded, together the pods and the peeled chickpeas whereas in the top photo, which I snapped at the vendor, I popped open just one pod to show how I and many other kids used to snack on them.

Here, I put a few pods together to show what they look like unpeeled. One thing that I didn’t mind then but do now, is the rough and sometimes sticky skin which meant that by the time you finish popping open the pods on one bunch, you end up have achy fingers, both from being slightly pricked by the sharp top as you press it ope and from rubbing against the slightly rough, furry skin.

And finally, here is what a big bunch of fresh chickpeas produces in green chickpeas. Not much given the effort but well worth it!