Rich in carbohydrates, proteins and minerals such as calcium, iron and phosphorus, chickpeas are the most widely consumed legumes globally. The one thing that immediately comes to mind when talking about chickpeas is definitely chickpea salad. With so many chickpea salad recipes from around the world, such as India, Italy, Morocco and Mexico, one can never complain of monotony, while tossing up this ever-favorite and healthy salad.
Revithia in Greek, ceci in Italian, kichererbse in German and garbanzo bean or Bengal gram in English, chickpeas make for one of the best protein sources in the world. One of the earliest legumes to be cultivated in the world, as evidenced by archeological remains in Turkey, France, Italy and Greece among others, today the highest producer of chickpeas, as of 2008, happens to be India with the yield per year standing at a whopping 5,970,000 tonnes, followed by Pakistan (842,000 tonnes), Turkey (523,553 tonnes), Australia (313,000 tonnes) and then Iran (310,000 tonnes). Chickpea today is used in innumerable food recipes such as to make pilaf, Indian chana masala, sweet chickpea halua in Bangladesh, chholaar daal (lentils) in West Bengal and halo-halo in Philippines. These are only very few examples from the plethora of delicacies that actually use chickpeas. But, among all these, it is the easiest to use these light colored beads to make extremely nutritious chickpea salad. So, I have taken it upon myself to give you some of the most exotic and vibrantly colorful chickpea salad recipes that'll fill the tummy, nourish the body and satiate the tingling taste buds!