Make your own chickpea flour in minutes with this simple process. Just one ingredient and five minutes needed to make homemade chickpea flour!
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Did you know you can make your own chickpea flour at home? It’s actually quite easy and much more affordable than buying pre-made chickpea flour at the store. Never overpay for chickpea flour again!
Have you heard of chickpea flour or garbanzo flour? It’s similar to Gram flour or besan but made with white chickpeas instead of split brown chickpeas. Although it’s found often in Asian and Middle Eastern dishes, it seems to be becoming more mainstream and trendy.
It’s also incredibly affordable to make your own chickpea flour at home, especially if you already have a high speed blender or coffee grinder at home. We have a Ninja and love it. Dried chickpeas come in one pound bags for less than $2 in most places making it a much better deal than most organic flour prices. Might as well make your own chickpea flour at home that you can have ready in minutes!
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Why use chickpea flour?
Chickpea flour is full of healthy nutrients and can be a great alternative to refined wheat flour. It’s a gluten-free flour that’s also lower in carbs but rich in protein and fiber.
It has a rich flavor that’s perfect for savory dishes. In Indian cooking it’s often used to make flatbreads, like socca, but it’s also great for making savory pancakes and fritters. Chickpea flour is a great thickener, too, for adding to soups and stews. It can even be used to make egg-free vegan scrambles!
If you have a gluten intolerance or celiac disease, a gluten-free flour like chickpea flour is a great alternative.
What does chickpea flour taste like?
On its own, chickpea flour has a subtle nutty flavor with a slightly bitter aftertaste. Although usually added to savory dishes, it can definitely be added to sweeter foods too like pancakes and cookies.
The flavor is pretty mild overall, so it’s a great flour to use for a variety of dishes. It’s even great as a substitute of almond flour or oat flour if you need a quick gluten-free alternative.
Benefits of chickpeas
With over 15 grams of protein per cooked cup, chickpeas are a great source of plant-based protein! They’re also rich in dietary fiber, which is beneficial for digestive health and weight control.
Chickpeas are also high in vitamins and minerals including folate (natural form of folic acid), magnesium, iron, phosphorus, zinc, and vitamin K.
Store-bought chickpea flours
If you do happen to be at the store and stumble across chickpea flour, here are common brands to look out for:
- Bob’s Red Mill Chickpea Flour
- Anthony’s Chickpea Flour
- Food to Live Garbanzo Bean Flour
- Vör Chickpea Flour
Prices vary quite a bit so make sure to check the price per ounce to ensure you’re getting a good deal! If you have an Indian grocery store nearby, that’s probably where you’ll find the best deals. Otherwise, read on for how to make chickpea flour for an always affordable, budget-friendly option!
What you’ll need
- dry chickpeas
- sieve or mesh strainer
- high-speed blender or coffee/spice grinder
How to make
No need to presoak or dehydrate. Dried chickpeas are already dry and you will be using the flour to cook or bake with so no additional cooking is necessary.
You may need to process in batches depending on how large your blender or coffee grinder is. For a coffee grinder, I recommend adding no more than 1/4 cup at a time.
Blend on high for two to three minutes until a flour-like consistency forms. It’s ok to still have larger pieces as we will sift these out.
Over a bowl, sift the flour using a fine mesh strainer to remove the large pieces. You should be left with a fine powder in the bowl. You can reprocess the larger pieces that you sifted out for another two to three minutes and sift again to maximize the amount of flour you get out of it. You can also use a coffee or spice grinder on these larger pieces to grind them even further but you may still need to resift.
How to use chickpea flour
Chickpea flour can be used in a variety of ways. One that is becoming more popular is a Chickpea Flour Scramble. It can also be used to thicken sauces or as a binder in veggie burgers.
You can even substitute it for regular white all-purpose flour. Use 3/4 cup chickpea flour for every 1 cup of regular white flour. You can substitute up to half the amount of white all-purpose flour called for in a recipe with chickpea flour. This is best for things like quick breads and yeast breads but it can be used for so many recipe types: omelettes, bread, cake, cookies, pizza dough etc.
How to store
Store chickpea flour in an airtight container for up to 8 weeks in a cool dry place, such as a pantry or cabinet. For longer storage, keep in the refrigerator.
Recipes that use Chickpea flour
Now that you’ve got homemade chickpea flour, here are some delicious chickpea flour recipes to use it in:
- One of my favorites lately to use chickpea flour is in this Chickpea Flour Frittata. It’s a very convincing vegan version!
- It’s also great made into Vegan Scrambled Eggs.
- For something sweeter try these Chickpea Brownies
- Gluten-Free Crackers can also be made using chickpea flour and are great for serving at parties with your favorite dip!
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The Easiest Homemade Chickpea Flour
Method
- Blender
Ingredients
- 1 lb chickpeas dried, uncooked
Instructions
- You may need to process in batches depending on how large your blender or coffee grinder is. Blend on high for two to three minutes until a flour-like consistency forms. It's ok to still have large pieces as we will sift these out.
- Over a bowl, sift the flour using a fine mesh strainer to remove the large pieces. You can reprocess these for another two to three minutes and sift again. You can also use a coffee or spice grinder on these large pieces to grind them even further but you may still need to resift.
Notes
Nutrition
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This article for how to make chickpea flour was originally published August 6, 2020 and has been updated February 20, 2023 with additional information and tips.
I’m learning and I’m confused at how chickpea flour has so much sugar as you have posted and other places I look all say different things ! Can you explain or help me ? Thanks
Hi Angela, sugar is naturally occurring in chickpeas. The nutrition facts for mine is for an entire 1 lb bag of chickpeas but you wouldn’t use all of that for one serving, which may be why it seems high. I typically don’t worry about naturally occurring sugar since it’s a whole food, just blended into flour.
First off. Thank you so much for sharing this. I had no idea about chickpea flour. I needed a gluten free, anti-inflammatory, high protein, healthy option for cooking and baking. But I do have a question for you regarding this flour and how to bake with it. I have search everywhere and can’t find an answer. I am looking to make Puff Pastry and was wondering if this flour will work or not?
I haven’t tried making puff pastry with chickpea flour, but I have seen pie crusts that used chickpea flour, so it may work. Chickpea flour is higher protein than all-purpose flour so you may need to add a little more moisture to it to get the right consistency. Let me know if it works out for you, I’d love to know 🙂
I broke the blade on my coffee grinder milling chickpeas! I think it may be best to use something designed for milling instead. I did get flour though.
Thank you so much for the recipe! I’m a little confused though and wondering if you can clarify for me: What happens to the chickpeas when you soak and dehydrate them first? Why is that the preferred method over simply blending the dried chickpeas? How does it affect the end result?
.. it just seems a bit unnecessarily cumbersome if you have dry chickpeas to begin with?
Hi Nina! Sorry about the confusion! I brought up soaking chickpeas because typically you have to soak them before cooking if you’re just using them as normal. And then to make the chickpea flour you’d need to dehydrate so that they’re dry in order to grind into a flour. These extra steps are not necessary and you can simply use a dry uncooked bag of chickpeas. The end result will be same. Since the chickpea particles in the flour are so small and are intended to be added to cooked recipes, the flour will cook quickly. If you want to add the chickpea flour to something raw, you should soak, cook and then dehydrate. Hope that helps!
Easy peasy! Even more so if you use a Vita Mix. If you use this method, just be sure to cool the flour awhile before storing. 🙂
Great tip! Thanks for sharing, Dawn! 🙂
Dry chickpeas are actually very hard.
(Possibly more than most dried beans.)
My food processor bowl SHATTERED after only a few seconds. (No it was not old.) Be VERY CAREFUL!
It’s not worth putting an eye out with tiny shards flying at you.
I do like / prefer to do this sort of thing myself, when possible / appropriate (for me), but as it’s only $1ish more for pre-ground (here anyhow) I think I’ll buy it for now.
(Seeing as I no longer have a food processor anyway…)
Just a warning to be careful! 🙂
Oh wow I’m so sorry to hear that happened! Do you mind sharing what brand of food processor you have?
If it was only $1 more here I would just buy it pre-ground as well—sounds like a great deal!
That was a while ago. I’m not entirely sure what brand it was. Something common though, like Hamilton, Ostar, or Ciusinart though.
To Renais, all the other articles I’ve read on this subject said to use a food processor. I don’t have the other items to try with.
Kat, if you read the instructions again, you’ll see the author stated to use a grinder or a blender – NO mention of using a food processor. Your bowl shattered due to not properly following the directions. Try that next time. 🙂
AMAZING!I was just saying to my daughter I swear the phone eavesdrop on our conversations. We were just talking about ordering some chick pea flour for me to take back to the states with me. She lives in Ghana and makes these most amazing little bites called kosei (dont know if I got the spelling right) using chick pea flour. I can totally imagine and taste it in a vegan scramble &/or frittatas. I’m in vegan heaven right now just anticipating the many recipes I can use it in at 1/10th the price. Ditching my nutritional yeast too! I can replace it in a couple of recipes with this chick pea flour at again a fraction of the price! Thank you so much!
Thank you so much Marjorie! Those little bites sound yummy. I’m so glad you found this at just the right time—it is funny how that seems to work out. Enjoy!! 🙂
I used this a lot in cooking, so I am going to try and make it myself. This looks simple.
It really is so simple! I love not having to buy it anymore 🙂
I’ve never made this kind of flour before, but excited to give this a try! I can’t wait!
It’s a great gluten free flour with lots of uses, and so easy to make! Enjoy!
I’ve never made my own flour, but I love this idea! Will definitely be trying it out soon, thanks!
Thanks! It’s easier than I realized! Enjoy!
What a quick and easy recipe. I can’t wait to try it out.
Thanks so much, Angela!
I never knew it was so easy to make chickpea flour! I’ll never buy it again! Thanks for the instructions 🙂