Cooking and Nutritional Characteristics of Malted Chickpeas.

The consumption of chickpeas is disadvantaged by their long cooking times and thus great cooking energy needs, as well as undesirable tastes and smells and the presence of some anti-nutritional factors. This work was aimed at measuring the cooking and nutritional characteristics of a typical chickpea variety (the straight furrow chickpea, SDC) cultivated in the Latium Region of Italy, as such, decorticated or after malting. A threestage (steeping, germination and kilning) process allowed their original contents of a-galactosides and phytate to be reduced by about 57% and 31%, respectively. Once decorticated, malted SDCs were directly cooked in boiling water for about 45 min, while the 16-h presoaked raw counterpart needed a 30-min longer cooking process. Dehulled malted SDCs can thus assist the general consumer with shorter preparation times and more healthy and sustainable eating habits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]