What is the difference between chickpeas and garbanzo beans?
Chickpeas are garbanzo beans, and vice versa. But there are two types of chickpeas, the larger, lighter kind that grows in Mediterranean areas and north Africa, and a smaller, darker kind that grows in India, Ethiopia, and Mexico. They don’t appear to be available fresh in the US. Dried beans are fine, but will require some hours of soaking, probably overnight, before they are cooked. They also have hulls, which are soft and edible, but if you want to make hummus from them, the hulls will have to be removed, since they won’t blend into the paste. Canned chickpeas are more expensive, but you can use them right away, and they don’t have hulls. I have never used the jarred variety, but I doubt they would differ much from canned.
