Chickpea Products
Chickpeas are probably most famous for being the main ingredient in hummus. Indigo Herbs loves to introduce different forms of much loved foods and in this case we bring you a top quality Organic Chickpea Flour and Organic Chickpeas. With more people finding they have a gluten intolerance to regular grain flour, it's important to find different forms of flour that all can digest. With our Organic Chickpea Flour you'll find a versatile flour that can be used in numerous recipes as a replacement to wheat flour. Organic Chickpeas can be used in many tasty dishes and provide top quality nutrition whilst being easy on the digestive system.
All through the Mediterranean and in the Middle East Chickpeas have been a regular part of the diet for centuries. Some of the earliest archaeological findings of chickpeas come from southern France, deep in the Mesolithic cave at L'Abeurador. These have been carbon dated to around 6,790 BCE with later Neolithic findings coming from Thessaly, Greece dating to around 3,500 BCE. Domestication of Chickpeas probably occurred from 7,000 BCE onward and have many notations throughout early European writings.
Various writers including Nicholas Culpeper, and mentions in the likes of Charlemagne's Capitulare de villis, have made sure that Chickpeas have remained popular not only as a food but also as a traditional medicine. Ground roast Chickpeas were also used as a substitute for coffee by German troops during the First World War.
Being the third most important pulse in the world, wild strains of the Chickpea plant have now disappeared. Within the genus of Cicer there are up to 43 different species of plant that all have similar characteristics. These include a plant that can grow to a level of around 100cm tall, has a vigorous root system and leaflets that grow in pairs along a branched stem. The Chickpea plant can have a sprawling nature and produces furry pod like balls that contain the valuable seed. Chickpeas are usually harvested before maturity so the seed retains the most nutritional value.