What Makes Great Garbanzo Beans?
Also called chickpeas, garbanzo beans are featured in recipes ranging from Middle Eastern cuisine to Indian food to salads and soups. An excellent source of protein, fiber and minerals, garbanzo beans are also known to lower cholesterol levels. Our chefs define high-quality garbanzo beans as having a tan color that displays some richness or saturation of pigment. The individual beans in a can should be mostly whole, and the size of the beans is not as important as its uniformity. In other words, all the beans in a can should be the same size no matter how big or small. Garbanzo beans should have a faint aroma with no metallic off notes from their packaging. Optimal taste balance is achieved when sweetness is about half of the sweetness in a sweet potato. A very low level of saltiness should balance the beans’ natural sweetness, and there should be no sour notes. Bitterness, if present, should be very hard to detect. When the beans are heated, their flavor intensity should intensify. De
