5 Budget-Friendly Chickpea Recipes For The Week!

New episode callouts go out every Friday! For new themes and how to submit, check out my community page here: https://www.youtube.com/@BerylShereshewsky/community

Thank you to Katarina, Linda, Arianna, Michelle, and Maya for sharing your dishes with us!

The artists behind me are Stephanie Ellis, Maxine McCrann, and Ameni Abida. Check out their work on my website here: https://www.beryl.nyc/index.php/stephanie-ellis/, https://www.beryl.nyc/index.php/maxine-mccrann/ & https://www.beryl.nyc/index.php/ameni-abida/

Recipe for homemade buffalo sauce: https://www.beryl.nyc/index.php/2024/04/04/buffalo-wings/

My Breakfast episodes playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQube5Se_ctGjIQh7V6ZSLIOyQZG4VCeI&si=n_e1nUKUjDZ7eEj8

RECIPES:
Buffalo Chickpea Wrap: https://www.beryl.nyc/index.php/2025/08/06/buffalo-chickpea-wrap/
Balila: https://www.beryl.nyc/index.php/2025/08/06/balila/
Salada de Grão de Bico: https://www.beryl.nyc/index.php/2025/08/06/salada-de-grao-de-bico/
Revithosoupa: https://www.beryl.nyc/index.php/2025/08/06/revithosoupa/
Farinata: https://www.beryl.nyc/index.php/2025/08/06/farinata/

CHAPTERS:
00:00 Intro
00:14 Making USA Buffalo Chickpea Wrap
02:51 Trying Buffalo Chickpea Wrap
05:13 Making Lebanese Balila (Warm Chickpea Mezze)
07:40 Trying Balila
10:02 Making Portuguese Salada de Grão de Bico (Salted Cod Chickpea Salad)
13:01 Trying Salada de Grão de Bico
14:41 Making Greek Revithosoupa (Chickpea Soup)
17:59 Trying Revithosoupa
19:42 Making Italian Farinata (Chickpea Pancake)
22:57 Trying Farinata

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– Chickpeas, an unsung
hero in lots of dishes. However, they take on
flavors like a champ. Today, we’re gonna look
at five chickpea recipes from five countries to see how great this one ingredient really is. (upbeat music) – Hi Beryl, my name is Michelle, and I’m from Atlanta, Georgia in the USA. I’m so excited to tell you
about the Buffalo Chickpea Wrap. So in Atlanta, Buffalo wings are central to our food culture, and
honestly, so delicious. We have a restaurant here that’s combined wet Buffalo sauce with dry lemon and pepper seasoning, and I think that combination is perfect. – Buffalo sauce is one
of my favorite flavors. I made Buffalo wings, which were amazing, and I made my own Buffalo sauce. Buffalo chicken pizza is
my favorite type of pizza. I put this on my eggs in the morning, it’s just so delicious. I’m gonna leave a recipe if you wanna learn how
to make this homemade, ’cause it’s really easy if you
can’t find it where you live, it’s the best sauce. I just love it. Ugh, so good. – I would eat wings every day if I could, but instead, I’ll settle for a little bit of an easier option,
which is a chickpea wrap that you can really prep ahead of time and eat throughout the week. – Lemon pepper seasoning
is one of those seasonings where if you’re gonna do nothing to a dish and just add lemon pepper to it, it’s going to turn out amazing. Lemon pepper chicken is one
of my go-to chicken recipes when I’m feeling like
I gotta make chicken, but I don’t really feel
like making chicken. Just douse it in lemon pepper, cook it on the cooktop or
put it in the oven even, and it’s so, so good. Leah also puts this on potatoes and says that it’s really delicious, which I have yet to try, but she’s nodding her head (chuckles) – [Leah] Good! – [Michelle] I just mixed
chickpeas with celery, onions, some Gorgonzola cheese,
your favorite Buffalo sauce, and a sprinkle of dry
lemon pepper seasoning. Put any toppings that you like on a rack like lettuce and tomato, and it’s just such a
simple and tasty lunch that leaves you energized
for the rest of the day. – I don’t know, I feel like
maybe I’ve overstuffed this. I can’t help it, I get excited, and I wanna like add all
the good stuff to it. I tried to channel my
inner Chipotle master, but I feel like I just
channeled my inner excited girl who’s making a wrap and
just puts everything in great quantities into it. But let’s try to roll
this baby up, let’s try. I’m gonna fold it, pull it, get the sides in, and then roll it, that’s the goal here. Okay, no, I can’t get the sides in, erh? Okay, we’re just gonna roll it. – [Michelle] If you like
this as much as I do, you’ll be making it every month, so I hope you enjoy, and thank you for sharing
this food with me. (upbeat music) – Sometimes making American
dishes on this channel can be difficult because I
don’t feel like in general they connect to a culture, but they tend to connect to a person. I do think the Buffalo
sauce is very American, but the idea of a wrap
with chickpeas in it, you could probably find
that in a lot of places. But I do like the idea
of a ranch Gorgonzola and Buffalo combo, that
does feel American. (upbeat music) Mm, mm, I love it. I love this so much. The Gorgonzola cheese is actually adding a really nice flavor. If you’ve never had Gorgonzola, I would say it’s a stronger cheese in the same category as a blue cheese. So if you don’t like a strong cheese, it might not be the cheese for you. Mm, the mashed chickpeas
with the Buffalo sauce, mm, I love Buffalo sauce, so anytime you add it, I’m gonna be a fan. It is easy to make, and like I said in the kitchen, I will leave a recipe in the description, plus the recipe for this
and everything else, it’s on my website, beryl.nyc. I like how simple this was to make. If you don’t wanna spend time
heating up the chickpeas, I do think you could get
away with eating them cold because I’m eating this
sandwich room temperature. I wanted to roll this a
little more professionally because you can see it’s
coming out the other side, but my tortilla was a little too small to get the edges in, or
I just over-packed it. Oh, did I overdo this? (laughs) But either way, I think that’s okay. You can’t be good at everything. And wrap rolling is not something that I’m apparently great at. I just have to live with that. The chickpeas in this are fabulous. They’re clearly the star. Everything is about the chickpeas. They’re spiced really well, the lemon pepper with the Buffalo sauce, great combination, never would’ve thought of that on my own. I think this is a great sandwich to get some protein in
if you’re a vegetarian. And if you’re not a vegetarian, it’s a great sandwich. Is a wrap a sandwich? That’s a question. Is a hotdog a sandwich? This is kind of like a burrito, so is a burrito a sandwich? I mean, it’s encased in
a bread or on all sides. I’m gonna say yes, I’m gonna say a wrap
is a type of sandwich. I don’t know, let me know what
you think in the comments. That might be something that people are gonna get mad at me about. (chuckles) I don’t know. It’s 10 out of 10, it’s a delicious,
delicious wrap, sandwich, a delicious sandwich. (upbeat music) – My name is Maya, and I live
in Durham, North Carolina, but I grew up in Beirut, Lebanon. Today, I’m talking to you about balila, which is my favorite chickpea recipe. Usually, hummus gets all the glory, but this dish celebrates the chickpea with such light and bright flavors, and it’s really easy to make. The difference between balila and hummus, which you might be familiar with, is that the chickpeas aren’t blended like they are in hummus. They’re swimming in
this rich tahini sauce, and so it’s a very tangy, flavorful, and light dish, but it’s also very filling. I love this dish because it really is a ode to the chickpea. The chickpeas are mostly whole, they’re not mashed up, and so you get to bite
into these creamy pearls that are then accented with the tangy tahini sauce, the lemon juice, the
garlic, and the olive oil. (grater rasping) – Oh, no, seed. Come on, seed. Aha, I got it. (Beryl laughs) – [Maya] Most Lebanese
people know about this dish. They usually make it at breakfast. Beans are a great source of fiber and protein for breakfast, and it can keep you going all day. The reason that this dish
makes the chickpeas the hero is because they are this perfect, creamy, dense vehicle for the brightness of the rest of the ingredients. – This has such a beautiful smell. It is earthy, has a little bit of stain from the jalapeno, but the tahini smell is really coming through.
(air whooshes) Yum, I’m ready to eat this,
after I salt it of course. Bing. – [Maya] So we like to
mix it with a green tahini that has cilantro,
jalapeno, onion, garlic, and that next to the creaminess of the chickpea is just such a delicious and delightful mix. I think this is a great
dish for people to try that like chickpeas, but are not familiar with other chickpea recipes
from the Arab world. Usually, all we’re known
for is the hummus dip, and as much as I love hummus, there are so many other chickpea recipes that are not part of
that mainstream cuisine. I hope you like it. – I think that this
dish looks so beautiful. The smell coming off of
it is so fresh-smelling. Let’s dig in.
(upbeat music) Hmm, that is amazing. The lemon comes through and really brightens everything up, and the tahini on top is very herbaceous and has that little bit
of kick from the jalapeno. I put some fried shallots on top because with the softness
of the chickpeas, I thought a little bit
of crunch would be nice, and it definitely is. Mm, I love playing with texture like that, of having something crunchy and something soft in the same bite. I like that this is
subverting the expectation that when you’re talking about chickpeas and you’re talking about the Middle East, you automatically will think of hummus. The chickpeas being whole in this and mashing them with the
cumin and the lemon juice, it’s a very different technique, and it makes for a very different dish. This doesn’t taste like hummus. I have to keep having bites
of this, it’s so good. (upbeat music) (Beryl giggling) I love that this is a breakfast dish. It makes me think back
to my breakfast episodes where I’m always so surprised by how people eat
breakfast around the world. Like, when I was a kid, I grew up eating Cheerios and milk. But around the world, people have much more
interesting breakfast dishes like this one, which I’m
always so keen to try. I am curious, so tell me in the comments what you guys grew up
eating for breakfast. Difficulty factor, I
would put this at a two. It was super simple to make. You only needed a couple of different, like I needed my wiza,
wiza, my wizard, (laughs) I needed the NutriBullet. Oh, I wanted to mention this, boiling the chickpeas in the aquafaba has made these so silky and creamy. I had never done that before. I always toss the aquafaba, and I know that you can do
a tons of things with it, but I usually just toss it. But boiling them in the aquafaba, and I then use the aquafaba in this, it was surprising for me, and also has just resulted in the most velvety texture chickpeas that I think I’ve ever had. All right, I’m having one more bite, and then we’re gonna wrap this up. (upbeat music) Hmm, I am excited to finish
this whole plate with Leah. I’ll give you some. – [Leah] Yay. (upbeat music) – Hi Beryl, my name is Katarina. I live in Portugal in a
region called Tras-os-Montes, which translates to
“Behind the Mountains,” although I was born and raised
up until eight years old in Toronto, Canada. The dish I’d like to share with you today is salada de grao de
bico or chickpea salad. – For this recipe, we’re using salted cod, and when you cook with salted cod, you need to soak it for around
12 to 24 hours in water, and change out the water periodically so the salt comes off. So my cod has been soaking overnight. It’s a lot of labor in the front just because you have
to think about the cod and remember to put it in the water, but it tastes really
good, so it’s worth it. I’ve worked with this
I think twice before, so I know a little bit
about how to work with it, but it’s still a very
foreign ingredient for me. – [Katarina] Salada de
grao de bico is a salad that is topped off with some of the best Portuguese
ingredients you can find: Salted catfish, olives,
I would prefer black, onion, sauteed garlic,
parsley or cilantro, hard-boiled eggs, maybe
some grilled peppers, and obviously, a ton of good olive oil. – This tub is a perfect example of why I need to check my kitchen before I go to the grocery
store and shop for these, because I have, let’s see, one, two, three, four, five and a half full cloves of garlic. I need to check my garlic episode and figure out something
to do with all this because it’s gonna go bad before I can get through
all of this garlic. Go to the store, buy a
head of garlic, get home. Oh no, I already have some garlic. – [Katarina] It is fresh,
it is salty, it hearty, and it is the perfect
dish for hot summer days like the ones that we are
currently living in my country. (lid pops)
– Boop! (spoon rattles) Ta-da. – Chickpeas are the hero of this dish because obviously without chickpeas, you can’t have a chickpea salad, but also because it’s a perfect binder for the flavors and for the textures of these amazing Portuguese ingredients. Chickpeas are actually very
present in our cuisine. It’s been present for a long time and it’s believed it was brought by Arabs, so it goes back for
centuries and centuries. People should try this dish because it is easy to make, it is quick. You don’t even have to cook if you’re willing to eat
salted cod just like that. – Adding the chickpeas. ♪ Oh na na na, na na na. ♪ – [Katarina] And it is
absolutely delicious. For those who may not
have salted cod available in their region, you can
substitute this with tuna and you have still a delicious and filling chipped pea salad. Thank you, Beryl, I hope
you enjoy, bon appetit. – I would say overall, this recipe was really easy minus the salted cod because it’s not an ingredient that I work with too often, but the smell is really nice. (upbeat music) It was worth the labor, hmm. The combination of the cod
and chickpeas is really good. The chickpeas are creamy and the cod has really nice texture to it. The cod might look, if
you’re gonna try this, like it’s uncooked, but it’s been preserved
in salt, so it is cooked. So you don’t have to
worry about cooking it, which is really nice. Let’s give it another try. Ooh, we have a full olive here. Mm, I love olives. What I like most about the
recipe as well is the dressing. I like that we cooked the
onions and the garlic, so the oil got a little bit flavored, and then when we mixed
it with the vinegar, the vinegar brightens
everything up so much in this. I didn’t have to add too much salt to this because the cod already
had a saltiness to it, but I did add a little bit because salt just has a really good way of lifting everything, and I don’t know, I just felt
like it needed a tad more. So if you’re gonna make it, try it before you add more salt. Katarina did say that you
can make this with tuna fish, and it’s something that
I would highly recommend. It would just be this
really great tuna salad with flavors that are gonna be different than making a mayonnaise tuna salad. I would say even though the cod feels like the hero of the dish, the chickpeas are necessary. They’re a great supporting
actor, let’s say, because the two of them together
make for a perfect combo. It’s fresh, it’s tangy, it’s perfect for summer because it’s cold. I think it’s just a great, great dish. (upbeat music) – Hi Beryl, my name is Arianna. I live in Berlin, Germany. I up in the south of Germany in Munich to a Greek mother and a German father. A dish I wanna talk about
today is a Greek one. It’s called the Revithosoupa. Revithosoupa is a traditional lemony chickpeas soup rooted in the culinary
traditions of Greece, where chickpeas have been
a staple for centuries. The simplicity of this dish only uses a handful of ingredients, reflects the heart of the Greek cuisine. – Have you guys heard the saying that you burn more calories eating celery than you actually get
from the celery itself? I’ve heard that, and
Leah and I were curious, so we talked to a food scientist about it, and the answer is no,
it’s not true. (laughs) But I thought it was interesting. Anyway, that’s my celery fact. – [Arianna] The star
ingredient of the soup is the chickpea, known
as revithi in Greek. Chickpeas are simmered with aromatics like onion, carrots,
celery, garlic until tender. – Arianna’s instructions say to heat a Greek amount of olive oil, which is just more than
I would usually use. So, all right, couple glogs here. Like this is where I would stop, but I’m gonna keep going, I’m channeling my inner yaya. (giggles) – A finishing touch of lemon juice and fresh dill adds brightness, making the soup so fresh and vibrant, and it’s also naturally vegan. I think most Greeks know this dish since it has been enjoyed for generations, especially during fasting
periods like Lent. Like most Greek dishes, Revithosoupa reminds me
of my Greek grandparents. I remember enjoying my grandma cuisine almost daily after school, while my parents were working full time. My grandparents came
to Germany in the 1960s as so-called guest workers. And like many others,
Greeks, Italians, Czechs, they helped rebuild
Germany after World War II, and many of them never went back, like my grandparents. – So I’m supposed to now add flour with some of the cooking liquid to help thicken the soup. I’ve never done something
like this before. I’ve always used cornstarch. So you know, a new skill perhaps, a new lesson that I’ve been learning. – You can find version of chickpea soup across the Mediterranean
from Spain to Morocco. And across Greece, there are also regional variations that bring unique touches to the dish. In some regions, for example,
like the island, Sifnos, tahini is added to enrich the soup with subtle nuttiness
and a creamy texture. – This, to me, is a classic Greek dish where you just feel like
you’re cooking your backyard, simple ingredients, but
they’re gonna come together and taste really nice. I mean, the kitchen smells really good, and lemony, and like garlicy and oniony, and the soup looks really pretty. Even though it’s a
million degrees outside. I’m so really excited to try it. (laughs) (upbeat music) Need salt. – [Arianna] To me, this
dish also symbolizes how immigrants contributed to improving Germany’s culinary offerings. I hope you enjoy this wonderful dish. (Arianna speaks in foreign language) (upbeat music) – I’m gonna be honest, I’ve let this soup come to room temperature
because it is so hot outside, but I feel like this is the type of soup that will be good at room temperature ’cause it’s just a bunch of veggies. (upbeat music) Hmm, mm,
(gentle music) this is so nice. It is so refreshing, and it is good at room
temperature, just saying. Adding the tahini made this very creamy, and I’m very into that. Yum, this is a very Greek recipe, having made a bunch of Greek
recipes on the channel. When I think about Greek food, I think about simple, whole ingredients, and that is what this
soup is to the letter. From the lemon to the chickpea flavor, the bittiness of the
carrot and the celery, it’s got like all these
beautiful flavors of the garden that are coming together
into this beautiful soup. This is very simple ingredients. (bottle rattling) Feels very Greek.
– I was just about to say- – [Beryl] So just like,
it’s like you’re cooking your garden.
– [Leah] Yeah. – Arianna’s story about her grandparents coming to Germany from Greece is the story I think that
we see again and again of immigrants bringing
their food with them and how the culture shifts
around those dishes. Like the Lebanese dish, this was very simple
to make, which I loved. Putting a soup together can sometimes be a lengthy process, but this one was very quick. And I also think the longer it sits, the more the flavors will develop. So tomorrow, this soup is gonna be better than it was today, but today it’s really good, mm-hmm! The chickpeas are definitely
the star of this dish. You’re getting them
with every single bite, and the flavor of them is so delicate and balanced in the soup. It’s a chickpeas soup for sure, a lemony chickpeas soup,
and it’s beautiful. (upbeat music) – Hi, I am Linda, I live in Milan, Italy. The chickpea dish I chose
to share is farinata, a savory sort of pancake which is made from chickpea flour. I like the different textures
and unique flavor it has. The key is to cook it in the oven and to top it with herbs and spices that enhance the flavor. I like pairing it with cold cuts such as prosciutto or grilled vegetables like zucchini, aubergines, or peppers. – Okay, so I let this sit in my fridge for about 10 hours, and now I’m gonna skim the top and we’re gonna make this farinata,. – [Linda] It reminds me of summer at the seaside with my family. We used to eat all together around a big table full of tasty food. This dish has ancient Greek, Arabic, and Latin origins. Being a popular, easily-accessible legume, it has always been part
of the Mediterranean diet. Its origins trace back
to the Ligurian Coast, particularly the city of
Genoa during the Middle Ages. Legend has it that after a naval battle in the 13th century, Genoese sailors accidentally
created the dish when barrels of chippy
flour and olive oil spilled, and mixed with sea water during the storm. Left to drain the sun, the mixture formed a savory, flat pancake that proved surprisingly delicious. – I feel like no matter how generously I’m going to brush this with olive oil, it is still going to stick. It’s just my fate,
everything always sticks. Please don’t stick.
(upbeat music) Alakazoo, bibbidi-bobbidi-boo. So this is supposed to be thin, and it’s about, it’s that thick. I feel like that’s pretty thin, yeah? (upbeat music) Yeah, okay, I’m gonna go with this, there’s leftover. So if you’re gonna try to make this, it makes a lot, like I
can make two of these. (upbeat music) I’m still waiting for my oven to heat up because it has to be super hot, 250 Celsius, 480 Fahrenheit. So also, if you’re gonna try this, don’t be like turned off by the temperature that
the oven has to be, it’s gotta be hot, hotter
than hot, hot, hot. Like the heat coming off of this is hot. I’m sitting really close
to it though. (laughs) We’re almost there, 460. Oh, heavy, so heavy, so hot. (oven door thuds)
(pan rasping) Second shelf, another 15. It looks like it didn’t stick.
– Yeah. – Off the sides. It did not stick, which is great, but I’m not entirely sure how to get this out without breaking it. So I think this might be a two-person job. Leah, come on down. (Leah applauding)
(Beryl chuckles) Wait a minute, is this a one person job? Oh, one person job.
– Welcome. (metal clanking)
– [Leah] Wow! – [Beryl] Whew! – [Linda] Today, farinata
remains beloved street food in Liguria and Tuscany, often served hot and crispy from the oven. It’s a simple dish. Nevertheless, it can
satisfy you completely. – This smells absolutely amazing, and I love that the edge is super crispy and the bottom is very crispy. Can you see that? Whoo, it’s like a great pizza
crust, but chickpea flour. I’m gonna eat it kind of like a pizza. (vehicle honking)
(upbeat music) Wow, you can taste the chickpea flour, still not in a raw flour way, but the flavor of chickpea flour, which is very subtle, but there. I love how crispy this part is, I want to try it. (farinata crunching) Yeah, it’s definitely a little oily because I was very scared
that it was gonna stick. But as it turned out, it did not stick, so the oil was worth it. Plus, good olive oil tastes good. The only spices that went into this were pepper and salt, and then I topped a little bit
of Italian seasoning on top ’cause it’s an Italian dish,
(speaks in foreign language). But it tastes really well-seasoned, it’s not bland at all. (upbeat music) (farinata crunching) Wow, I’m impressed. This is definitely a crowd
pleaser type of dish. And a really interesting
way to look at chickpeas, I think chickpea flour is something that’s totally underrated. If you’re gluten-free, it’s
a great option for you, you can do so much with it. You can make breads with it. It’s really common in Indian cooking. I didn’t realize that it was common in Italian cooking as well. This was really easy to make. The only thing is, is
that you had to remember to soak the batter overnight, which I completely forgot to do. It was like midnight, I ran outta bed, set up the cameras, had to quickly arrange everything because I knew Leah was coming over, and if I didn’t do, she
was gonna yell at me, and obviously we weren’t
gonna be able to film. So, luckily I remembered, but that’s something that
you do have to remember if you wanna make this. You can do it for as little as six hours and up to 24 hours if
you put it in the fridge. Based on the photos, I think that the thinness
of this is perfect. It’s about half of a
knuckle thick. (giggles) I hope you enjoyed this
episode all about chickpeas, and it’s inspired you to think about them a little bit differently. All the recipes are on
my website beryl.nyc. And don’t forget to like and subscribe, it helps support the channel. Until next week, I’m leaving you with our first chickpea episode as well as our eggplant episode to help inspire you further. I will see you all next week.