How To Make Your Own Chickpea Flour

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Ingredients | Chickpeas

Ever run across a recipe that calls for chickpea flour? No? Well, I have. Indians, Turks, Italians, Spaniards the French — they all use it. But finding a store that stocks chickpea flour can be a pain. Here's how you can make your own in a snap.

Chickpea flour — also known as besan, gram flour, channa flour, harina de garbanzo — is a popular ingredient in many Old World cuisines. It is the used in the batter for Indian pakoras. The French of Provence make a popular bread called socca with it that they bake in wood-fired ovens. Persian Jews mix it with ground chicken to form gundi dumplings. Chickpea flour can also be a great substitute for wheat flour in many recipes and for thickening sauces. Good news for those who want to go gluten-free!

Here's how to make your own. It should yield around 1 1/2 cups.

Chickpea Flour Recipe

  • 2 cups of dried chickpeas
  1. Add the chickpeas in small batches to a food processor, coffee grinder or blender and process until pulverized and smooth.
  2. Run through a sieve to remove any large particles. Use as directed in recipes.
  • Toasted Chickpea Flour: toast the chickpeas in a 400°F oven for 15-20 minutes, or until the chickpeas start to give off a toasted aroma and are lightly browned. Cool and proceed with the recipe above.


For falafel, you can use sprouted chickpeas. Google to find out how.

making your own chickpea flour

I use my THERMOMIX to grind the chickpeas.Perfect for all grain processing, rice to rice flour, wheat to flour etc,etc


I used a small coffee grinder to make a small quantity ( 1/2 cups)of Chickpea flour and it worked great...super fine, no chunks at all. Unlike some others, no stomach distress.

canned garbanzo beans

I'm using chickpea flour in a few recipes and the first step is usually adding water and spices and making a paste....can i just skip the flour and just puree canned for the same effect?

Chickpea flour from canned?

I live in Mexico. Chickpeas (garbanzos) are for sale dried and in cans, but even the best stores that cater to the foreign community, do not have chickpea FLOUR.

I have a fine food processor, but it's not industrial strength, and dried chickpeas are very hard. I won't risk it. And I don't possess a coffee or spice grinder. My only other option remaining is to turn canned chickpeas into chickpea flour.

Here's what I propose to do - and I'd like any comments, ideas or suggestions on it.

I'll drain the chickpeas and whiz them in my food processor as thoroughly as I can. Then I'd take the paste, spread it out on some parchment paper and dry it either in the sun or in a slow oven. When dry, I'd whiz it a second time, and hopefully get flour. I would then sieve out the bigger pieces.

I want to make genuine falafel, pakoras and perhaps certain kinds of samosas that use chickpea flour. Maybe some hummus, too.

Your input to this idea will be appreciated.
Holly B.

Regarding your suggestions

Hello, I also live in Mexico and my British boyfriend, being so used to Indian food, has been craving some recipes- specially the ones with chickpeas. You sound like an intuitive cook, and it sounds like it could work so I will try your method as well. Many thanks for giving me the idea ;-)

Ingredients requiered to get a chickpea flour.

First by tranformation, in the case you dont have a dehydrator to make dried your cooked chickpea, I suggest to go the way using a food additive that may contain amidon and fiber. The puree of the chickpea is rich in fiber and amidon and could be mixed with any fruit or vegetable turn into powder. To produce a paste from these without a dehydrator, do first a roast in oiled a pan, a boil about 5 minutes and then, last by a roast in a oiled pan again. The fruit and the vegetable turned into a thick puree that should be use as fried paste. In the need, the cooked potato are rich in amidon so mix it in a food processor to add thickness to your chickpea paste and give it a 5 min frie in a very hot oil pan.

Finally, mix any food powder tha may rich in amidon and fiber to your chickpea puree as you get a tick paste so the fried is possible and will be crisp.

Second, using a strong hammer may turn the dried chickpea into powder anyway with a little bit longer time if u are lazy on it : that works on muscat...

Chickpea flour from canned?

When you use canned garbanzo, it has different texture and taste as the chick peas are cooked before canning.

If you need to add water in the Chickpea flour, e.g. for felafel, then soak the raw chick peas for 6 hours, which will make them soft, and then grind them in blender. If you soak too long, it may smell. You can soak less, if you soak them initially in warm (not hot) water.

falafel without flour

you don't need the flour to make falafel or hummus..
I usually make it using dry chickpea (the cheapest solution everywhere) obviously after being soaked in 2 parts of water for at least 12 hours, with a teaspoon of soda (helps for smooth peas).
You can choose if boil it or simply smash (adding the other ingredients) and fry, if you'd like to make falafel.

I come from Italy, and if you like I will send you some more recipes!

Falafel without flour

I have made falafel from dried chickpeas (soaked). NOTHING can be compared to it. It is so much better than starting with flour or powder.

Go to and try the recipe you find. Phenominal!!!

falafel recipe using soaked chick peas and other similar recipes

I was very excited to see your web posting for recipes using soaked beans. I can only eat soaked navy beans, lintels and split peas because of a special diet ordered by my doctor for Crohn's and IBS. If you don't have recipes using those beans, I can substitute these in recipes calling for other type beans.
Thank you

ckickpea flour in mexico


Your idea sounds great, I live in Mexico too and I was wondering how to get flour from my chickpeas. So far they have been soaking for a day and are now (uncooked) in the freezer.

Did you try your method? How did your bread turn out?


buy no oil/salt dry roasted toasted chickpeas to make easily

i buy, for $10/kg (so 2.50 for 250g, etc) of dry roasted chickpeas. you can eat them straight out of pack but they are NOT like the commercial chickpeas sold to eat in supermarkets that are roasted in oil and salt.

they are pure chickpeas, picked then roasted INSTEAD of dried. it gives a totally different texture. think of split or whole dride green peas. these are mega rock solid and not chewable raw. but if you take the just picked green pea straight out of pod and dry roast it, it is crunchy and "dried" but not rock solid.

dry roasted chickpeas in 250g packs are made by galaxy nuts in australia and available throughout sydney, nsw, aust or you can go to Paddy's market and buy them by weight for same price. 2 varieties available. white or yellow. most flours are made from yellow which are larger.

I grind chickpeas in my Wonder Junior

My Wonder Junior Deluxe hand grain mill grinds chickpeas quite well, a finer flour than a coffee grinder, blender, or food processor can. I make all kinds of GF flours with my Wonder Junior.

homemade chickpea flour

Coffee bean grinder works the best!! Thank you!

as far as grinding goes...

I used chana dal, which are dried, split chick peas and a Cusinart blender. It was loud, took a few minutes but it worked and I have the yummiest baked okra ever. I can't see how any food processor could grind this unless it was a mini prep, the blades just aren't going to be able to reach the pieces as they become more broken down.

I grew up with Lebanese neighbors, and while they did not use chana dal, they did split some chick peas before they were dried, to be used in falafel and other doughs.

If I have committed heresy, I apologize, but hey, if you want to try this, find split, dried chick peas, I think they made all the difference in the world (and well, my blender could almost power a bass boat)

THANKS a ton

Didn't work for me

I put the chickpeas in a small, domestic coffee grinder, tried to grind them. After about two minutes, one of the chickpeas had split in two and there were some other small slivers that had been shaved off. Otherwise the chickpeas were totally intact, and showed no signs of being amenable to being ground.

I have the impression that I should really use a large, commercial coffee grinder to do the job.

Cooking the chickpeas

You mentioned toasted chickpea flour. Do you have to cook the chickpeas first?

Others have mentioned that you want to wash and soak the chickpeas. How long do you have to soak them for? Is it in cold water?

If I want to ultimately make flour, for the step of cooking the chickpeas, how do you cook them? In a crockpot with just water? How long and what heat?

chickpea flour

THANK YOU so much!! this was so helpful and easily answered my question!!


I forgot to mention that after the chickpeas are cooked, they will need to be dried before grinding into flour. Spread them on a cookie sheet and place in a 250 degree oven for 2 to 3 hours.

Of course, you can use them before you dry them by grinding, then reducing the liquid in your recipe. You may have to experiment a bit to find just the right ration of chickpeas to fluid.

Do you know if commercially

Do you know if commercially bought chickpea flour is normally cooked and dried first? I have been making Socca with bought flour and it was yummy, but sometimes it tasted slightly mouldy. So I just tried making my own fresh chickpea flour by milling dried chickpeas, from straight out the packet. It tasted fresher, but a bit bitter and not as nice. Also my grain mill only mills into quite coarse flour, so the Socca didn't stay together or cook properly.
Ideally I'd like to find pre-made chickpea flour that's fresh.

I would like to manke Hummus

I would like to manke Hummus using ground, un-cooked chickpea flower. Can i do this, or is there a problem that i am not aware of. I am a bit concerned about the small bits of un-pulverized chickpeas hurting the teeth when the hummus is eaten.


You have to soak and cook your chickpeas, then cool completely before making hummus. Soak 2 cups of chickpeas over night. Then boil in 4 cups of water for about twenty mintes, or until they give when pinched and there are no white starch spots. Strain and reserve 1 cup of chickpea water. Let sit out to cool to room temp then refridgerate at least 2 hours. Don't put hot chickpea in the fridge or they will be grainy mush. Put cooled chickpeas in a food processor and blend until you get a lumpy paste adding reserved chickpea water if too dry. Next push the paste through a fine mesh sieve to remove chickpea skins and return to the food processor add salt, lemon juice, Tahiti paste, and olive oil to taste until desired taste and consistency is achieved


Re problems, see above posts re uncooked dry chickpeas. WHY would you want to use raw flour? I have made homous using sprouted, raw chickpeas (see Isabell Shipard's How to Grow and Use Sprouts book) and it turned out quite edible, but I'm not totally converted to raw foodism and prefer to soak and cook my chickpeas in a crockpot and then grind them up for homous.

Less digestive distress

Raw chickpeas (and other legumes) are extremely difficult to digest. The chickpeas need to be soaked and cooked before they are ground. The resulting flour will be much tastier and more likely to be properly digested.

I disagree

Although some recipes out there call for cooking the chickpeas first, I disagree for a few reasons:

  1. It's not necessary. Yes, raw chickpeas and other legumes are difficult to digest. But nobody eats chickpea flour raw. It is used in recipes where it is cooked. And when a bean is ground to a powder, it cooks quickly.
  2. It is unnecessarily complicated. First you soak them, then you cook them, then you dry them in the oven overnight, then you finally grind them. Sheesh! You may as well just drive to the store and by a bag of besan for all the trouble you just went to.

I've used home-ground chickpea flour many times for things like pakora, besan ka puda, socca and coating fried fish. It all tasted great, and neither I nor my family suffered any gastric distress.

Bought cheapeas at the Grainery, not sure what next ?

They were dried but I am not sure if they were toasted or not and does that matter ? I want to make flour and / or cook them to enjoy as hummus and other dishes. any thoughts Brad ?

Actually, I made chickpea

Actually, I made chickpea flour from raw chickpeas a few days ago. I simply put raw dried chickpeas in my high speed blendtec blender and ground them into a flour. I then proceeded to use the flour in a vegan eggless quiche that I baked for 45 minutes. The texture and taste worked very well to make this quiche (I also used a sauce made from raw cashew nuts, boiling water, lemon juice, and nutritional yeast which I have made many times before and the flour acted as a thickener and egg substitute; then added my vegetables). However, I became quite ill almost immediately and for a few days after this with constant gas, diarrhea, nausea. I kept belching this awful gassy taste. That is the first time I had ever tried making chickpea flour from dried chickpeas (not soaked or cooked first). I thought it would be economical since I do not use chickpea flour much and would have hated to spend a fortune buying a package of chickpea flour that would sit in my refrigerator. But this method made me sick. My partner, who also had the quiche, was sick as well. It had to be that flour. I have made all the other ingredients in the quiche many times with no problems and I eat a LOT of beans as a vegan (soaked and cooked first) so I am used to them.
This is why I have been visiting blogs trying to figure out if this is safe to do, using raw beans to make flour. I may try soaking or cooking the beans first next time I attempt to make my own chickpea flour if ever. I wouldnt wish the diarrhea and nausea I had on anyone.

grinding chickpeas for flour

i found it took forever to pulverize chickpeas in a cuisinart food processor. i tried a small electric coffee mill and it took seconds. of course, the quantities were smaller but overall the process was much faster.

Great suggestion!

I'll add that option to the recipe. Thanks!


How long does this freshly-ground flour store for? Do you keep in the freezer?

freeze freshly ground flour?

that's a good question. for that matter, fresh almond flour, corn flour - should all of those be frozen?

freezing freshly ground flour

I always freeze my freshly ground flours of any kind if i don't use them right away. Otherwise the oils in the flour will go rancid and ruin the fresh flavor and lessen the nutrition of the flour.