What to Cook With a Tin of Chickpeas and Rice

A tin of chickpeas and a bag of rice is one of those pantry pairs that looks like nothing and feeds a family. If you are wondering what to cook with a tin of chickpeas and rice tonight, you have more room than you think: a curry, a salad, a dip and a pot of flavoured rice are all on the table.

First the arithmetic, because most recipes on this site start from dried chickpeas and most shelves hold tins.

Tin versus dried: the conversion

A standard 400 g (14 oz) tin usually holds around 240 g (8.5 oz) of drained chickpeas, though brands vary, so check the label for the drained weight. Our chana masala is written for 200 g (1 cup) of dried chickpeas, soaked overnight, or 2 tins, drained. That is about 480 g of drained chickpeas once cooked, which makes four servings.

So for one tin, halve the chana masala amounts and you have a dinner for two with rice, or a side for four. Dried chickpeas roughly double in weight when soaked and boiled, so 100 g dry is about 200 to 250 g cooked.

Rinse tinned chickpeas under cold running water until the foam stops. That removes the tin liquid, which can taste metallic and a bit salty.

Rice amount per person

Rule of thumb: 1/2 cup (about 90 to 100 g) dry basmati per adult as a side, a little more if the rice is the main part of the plate. One cup dry (about 200 g) gives you four small servings. Our daal chawal boils 300 g (1.5 cups) of rice for four people and boils it in plenty of salted water for about 12 minutes until just tender, then drains.

If you want tips on separate grains, our post on cooking basmati rice has the rinse, soak and water-ratio basics.

Plan one: chana masala over rice (about 35 minutes with tin)

This is the straightforward answer. With a tin, you skip the 45 to 60 minutes of boiling. The recipe on this site then runs like this:

1. Fry finely chopped onion until golden brown, about 7 minutes.
2. Add ginger-garlic paste and tomato, and fry about 8 minutes until the oil separates.
3. Stir in turmeric, red chilli powder and coriander powder for about 1 minute.
4. Add the chickpeas and about 1 cup (240 ml) of water, since you will not have cooking water from a tin, and crush a few chickpeas against the pan. Simmer 10 to 15 minutes until the gravy clings.
5. Finish with chaat masala and coriander.

Crushing a few chickpeas matters more than it sounds. The starch thickens the gravy so you do not need cream or paste. If it tastes flat, it is almost always salt or sourness: add salt a pinch at a time, and a squeeze of lemon.

Plan two: chana chaat and plain rice, no cooking

When it is hot, or nobody wants to stand at a stove, our chana chaat uses 300 g (about 1 3/4 cups) of cooked chickpeas with chopped onion, tomato, green chilli, coriander, chaat masala and lemon juice, chilled for 10 minutes. Serve it as a bowl with a scoop of plain rice at the side, or mix a spoonful of cold rice in, which tames the chilli.

Make this fresh. Once salted and lemoned, chickpeas release water and the chaat goes soggy within a few hours, so keep leftovers for a day at most, covered in the fridge.

Plan three: hummus and rice bowl

Hummus in our library uses 400 g (14 oz) of chickpeas, which is one tin. It blends tahini, lemon juice, garlic and salt first, then the chickpeas, then drizzles in 3 to 5 tablespoons of ice-cold water to make it light.

If you do not have a blender, a stick blender or even a fork will give you a rougher, mashed version. Rough is fine on rice.

Serve a spoonful of hummus with warm rice, cucumber and a squeeze of lemon. It is not a traditional pairing, just a decent weeknight bowl, and it uses nothing that needs heat except the rice.

Plan four: flavoured rice with chickpeas folded in

If your rice is leftover, lemon rice is a good pairing. The recipe spreads cooked rice on a plate to cool completely so the grains stay separate, then pours over a tempering of mustard seeds, split lentils, peanuts, curry leaves and green chilli, with 3 tablespoons of lemon juice.

Fold in a handful of rinsed chickpeas at the end. They are already cooked, so they only need to be mixed through. Cooling the rice on a plate also helps with safety: cooked rice should be cooled within about 1 hour, kept in the fridge for no more than 1 day, and reheated until steaming hot. Our post on cooling and reheating rice explains why.

For a cold, creamy side, curd rice also goes well next to a tin-of-chickpeas curry.

Mistakes to skip

• Tipping the tin liquid in. It can taste tinny and thin the gravy.
• Skipping the crush. Whole chickpeas in thin sauce stay separate; crushed ones bind it.
• Boiling the chickpeas hard. Tinned ones are already soft and will turn to mush if they boil for 30 minutes. Simmer 10 to 15.
• Reheating chana more than once. Cool within about 1 hour and eat within a day.

What to pick tonight

If you have a few other things on the shelf, tick them in the Degchi pantry try-out and see which dishes it suggests, no sign-up needed.