Chickpea (canned)

Why chickpea (canned) is rated low

Canned chickpeas are low at ½ cup (86.5g), which is more than most people expect from a legume, and the record shows no FODMAP subgroup raised at that serving. The published data also tests a larger bowl, and at ⅞ cup (158g) canned chickpeas move up to moderate. So the answer is not that chickpeas are out, and not that they are unlimited either. A measured half cup through a salad or a grain bowl is the low serving, and the moderate rung is what a heaped scoop or a second helping lands on.

What changes your risk

• How much goes in the bowl ½ cup (86.5g) is low and ⅞ cup (158g) is moderate. The difference between those two is roughly the difference between a spooned serving and a generous scoop, so it is worth measuring rather than eyeballing.
• Drain and rinse properly Water soluble FODMAPs leach out of the chickpeas into the canning liquid while the tin sits on the shelf. Empty the tin into a sieve, let it drain, then rinse under cold running water for about half a minute until the water runs clear and no foam is left, and shake them dry before using them.
• Do not cook them in the tinned liquid That liquid is where the leached FODMAPs went. Pouring it into a soup or a curry puts them straight back into the dish.
• Chickpeas boiled from dried The servings on this page are for the canned form. Beans cooked from dried are a different preparation and the figures here do not transfer to them.
• Hummus, falafel and curry bases Chickpeas usually reach the table processed and seasoned. Shop hummus is very often made with garlic, curry and tagine bases are built on onion, and falafel is normally made from dried chickpeas. Garlic infused oil gives the flavour without the fructans as long as no solid pieces are left in it.

What else works

Keep the chickpeas at ½ cup (86.5g) and build the rest of the bowl out of things that are genuinely low rather than adding a second legume. Rice, quinoa, polenta, buckwheat or potato do the filling work, and carrot, zucchini, bell pepper, cucumber, green beans and baby spinach add the volume. Firm tofu, eggs, plain chicken and fish cover the protein when a half cup is not enough on its own, and peanuts, walnuts or pumpkin seeds give crunch. Lentils, kidney beans, baked beans and butter beans at ordinary servings are not the way to make the dish bigger, since swapping one legume for another does not lower the load.

How to keep it low

Measure the half cup before the chickpeas hit the pan or the salad bowl, then store the remainder of the tin in fresh water in the fridge and use it within a couple of days. If you like them roasted, rinse and dry them well first, toss with plain oil or garlic infused oil and spices, and portion them out after roasting, because a tray of crisp chickpeas is very easy to eat straight through. When ordering out, ask what the base of a curry or tagine is before assuming the chickpeas are the only thing worth checking, and treat shop hummus as a garlic question rather than a chickpea one.

Common questions

how much canned chickpeas is low fodmap

½ cup (86.5g) is the tested low serving. At ⅞ cup (158g) canned chickpeas are moderate, so the half cup is what the low rating describes.

what happens if you eat more than half a cup of chickpeas

The published data puts ⅞ cup (158g) at moderate rather than low, so a larger bowl moves up a rung instead of staying where the half cup sits.

is hummus low fodmap

The serving data here covers canned chickpeas at ½ cup (86.5g), not hummus. Shop hummus is usually made with garlic, which is a problem on its own, so read the label or make it with garlic infused oil instead.

should you rinse canned chickpeas

Yes. FODMAPs that dissolve in water end up in the canning liquid, so draining the tin and rinsing the chickpeas under cold water before using them is worth doing, and the liquid should not go into the dish.