Chickpeas: general characteristics, benefits and harms

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum) is a legume plant. This useful plant is known to many as Turkish peas, mutton peas, shish, cysticus or nahat. The benefits and harms of chickpeas are due to the chemical composition and nutritional value of legumes.

Botanical features

The genus Chickpeas includes more than thirty species, but only the species Cicer arietinum has spread in the culture. This type of annual plant has a branched rod root with the presence of nodule formations. In the process of germination, the cotyledons do not leave the soil, and the emerged shoots have a greenish or reddish-purple color. The stem part is ribbed, straight or curved, branching. Stem heights can vary between 30-60 cm.

Leaves of a complex type, unpaired, with a short petiole. Leaflets of small sizes, serrate, elliptical or obovate. Flowers of a single structure, axillary, medium-sized. Coloring flowers can be varied. The beans are shortened, swollen and oval-elongated or rhombic in shape. Matured beans have a pronounced straw yellow color. A variety of cicer arietinum refers to self-pollinating plants, which greatly facilitates the cultivation of crops in the conditions of home gardening.

The benefits of chickpea

The beneficial properties of chickpeas are numerous, which allows the use of legumes very widely:

• recommended for diet;
• in comparison with ordinary peas, lentils and beans, nutrients from chickpeas are absorbed faster;
• It is an excellent source of plant-based protein foods for vegetarians and fasting people.
• rich in carbohydrates and protein;
• has a fairly high calorie content, which is 320 kcal per 100 g of product;
• The medicinal benefit of chickpeas is the ability to purify blood, relieve inflammatory processes in the oral cavity, stop arrhythmia attacks, relieve lumbar pain;

• the use of dishes prepared from chickpeas gives a positive trend in patients with jaundice, anemia, as well as in the presence of problems with the liver or spleen;
• chickpeas improves the digestive system, relieves constipation and inhibits the growth of putrefactive microflora in the intestine;
• methionine contained in chickpeas is able to lower cholesterol and perfectly regulates blood sugar levels.

Among other things, chickpeas is known as an antidepressant, it is widely used to treat eye diseases, dissolves kidney stones and reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease.

Nut: benefits and harms

Contraindications

Despite the fact that the benefits of chickpeas are obvious, when using dishes from it and using this culture for medicinal purposes, we should not forget about side effects and contraindications:

• the main harm is increased gas formation in the first days of eating chickpea dishes;
• do not drink chickpeas with cold water, due to the risk of severe stomach cramps;
• Chickpeas can not be consumed simultaneously with dishes based on apples and pears.

It should also be noted that this leguminous crop is contraindicated in the presence of diseases such as cystitis, urinary tract pathology, thrombophlebitis, gout, exacerbation of gastric ulcer, severe allergic manifestations. With special care, chickpeas should be eaten by elderly people and children, due to its ability to provoke increased gas production.

Growing technology

Chickpea cultivation is not too different from cultivation of other leguminous plants:

• Cicer arietinum should be grown on chernozem, gray forest, chestnut or loamy soils with neutral or slightly alkaline pH values ​​of 6.8-7.4;
• optimal temperature indicators of the soil for the germination of chickpea seeds are about 13-14 ° C;
• at the stage of mass flowering and fruit formation, the air temperature should not be lower than 20-22 ° C;
• in comparison with other leguminous crops, chickpeas are the least demanding on soil moisture and have a fairly high level of drought tolerance;

• in the season of prolonged rains, the crop may be affected by ascochitosis, and the flowering period may shift or the ovaries will fall, which negatively affects the overall yield;
• the culture can be grown as a plant sealant for potatoes, cabbage or carrots;
• cultivation is carried out in a standard ordinary way with a distance between plants of 8-10 cm and a distance between rows of 25-30 cm;
• the optimal landing depth depends on soil moisture indicators and can vary between 8-14 cm;
• the culture responds very well to the introduction of organic and mineral fertilizers under the precursor plants;
• a noticeable increase in yield can be obtained by introducing manure at the stage of deep digging;
• It is recommended to use phosphorus-potash fertilizers as mineral top dressing.

Chickpeas have an amazing ability to enrich the soil, so its cultivation is often carried out on depleted soils in order to restore them.

Species and varieties

Geographically, it is customary to distinguish the following subspecies of chickpeas:

• steppe;
• Afghan;
• mountain european;
• Turkestan;
• Anatolian.

Despite the great variety of varietal varieties of chickpeas, only some of them are cultivated for food purposes. For cultivation in the soil and climatic conditions of our country, only four varieties are suitable.

Cooking options

Chickpea dishes have gained popularity in Asian countries, as well as in North Africa, North America and the Mediterranean region, where beans are used not only in raw, but also in boiled and fried form. Most often, white seed varieties are used for food purposes, suitable for making soups, main dishes, side dishes and appetizers.

Chickpeas: cultivation features

Chickpeas include hummus and falafel. You can also prepare tasty and nutritious preparations for the winter from leguminous crops. Besan flour, well known in many countries, is also made from these beans and is the main ingredient for the preparation of cakes, pasta and baby cereal. Roasted and crushed beans with raisins, sesame seeds or walnuts are used in the preparation of national sweets.