Chickpeas & Pulses

What it is

Qatani covers Morocco's dried legumes: chickpeas (hummus), plump and nutty; white haricot beans (loubia); brown and red lentils ('ads); and split, skinned fava beans for bissara, alongside whole dried broad beans and the occasional split pea. They are sold dried in open sacks by weight, and canned chickpeas have made inroads for convenience but rarely match the flavour of dried.

These pulses are the affordable protein of daily life and the base of some of the most beloved dishes in the repertoire — which is exactly why they sit in the pantry pillar next to the grains and flour rather than being an afterthought.

Most need an overnight soak and a long, gentle simmer; a pressure cooker is a common Moroccan kitchen shortcut for getting chickpeas tender.

In the Moroccan kitchen

Chickpeas and lentils together give harira its body — the tomato-and-herb soup that breaks the fast in Ramadan and appears year-round. Split fava beans, skinned and simmered soft, are blitzed into bissara, the thick, garlicky purée eaten hot with a slick of olive oil and a dusting of cumin and paprika, especially on cold mornings.

White beans make loubia, a homely tomato-and-garlic bean stew; chickpeas also crown couscous, pad out meat and vegetable tagines, and turn up in salads. A handful of soaked chickpeas is a routine addition to a Friday couscous pot.

The technique is patience: soak overnight, skim the froth, simmer gently until fully tender before adding salt or acidic tomato (which can otherwise keep the skins tough), and — for the smoothest bissara or hummus — cook the pulses soft enough to crush easily.

• Harira — chickpeas and lentils in the Ramadan soup
• Bissara — split fava beans puréed with garlic, oil and cumin
• Loubia — white-bean stew with tomato and garlic
• Chickpeas crowning couscous and padding out tagines
• Lentil and chickpea salads

How to choose & store

Good dried pulses look bright, plump and unbroken, with even colour and no shrivelling, and — crucially — should not be too old, because pulses that have sat for years can refuse to soften no matter how long you cook them. Avoid sacks full of dust, split skins, stones or tiny holes (a sign of weevils). Fresher stock from a busy stall cooks faster and more evenly.

For bissara, buy the split, skinned fava beans specifically; whole dried favas need peeling. Canned chickpeas are a reasonable shortcut for salads and quick dishes, but dried, soaked chickpeas give better flavour and texture in harira and couscous.

Buying it in Marrakech

What to look for at the stall — and how to buy well without invented prices to anchor you.

• Buy from the grain and pulse stalls in the covered markets, where chickpeas, beans, lentils and split favas are sold loose from open sacks by weight.
• Ask for split, skinned fava beans by name if you are making bissara — they save a long peeling job.
• Choose plump, bright, unbroken pulses; avoid sacks with lots of dust, split skins, stones or little insect holes.
• Favour fast-moving stalls — fresher dried pulses cook more quickly and reliably than very old stock.
• Pick up whole dried chickpeas rather than canned for harira and couscous; the flavour and texture are noticeably better.

Substitutes

• Canned chickpeas and beans substitute for dried in a hurry — drain, rinse and add late, since they are already cooked.
• Lentil types are fairly interchangeable in soups, adjusting cooking time (red lentils collapse; brown hold shape).
• If split favas are unavailable for bissara, dried split peas give a similar smooth, savoury purée with a slightly different flavour.