Chickpeas

The chickpea (Cicer arietinum) is a legume or pulse. It is one of the oldest foods known to humankind, having been among the first crops cultivated—along with wheat and barley—in the Fertile Crescent (modern Iraq) around 4000 bce. The chickpea is a large, round seed, slightly pointed at one end, and grooved down the center. It is a larger relative of the garden pea, but there is only one to a pod. Because of its taproot system, the chickpea can withstand drought conditions by extracting water from deep in the soil. This allows it to thrive in dry climates. Although the color varies widely when grown in the Mediterranean, in the United States it is almost always light brown when ripe.