How To Make Chickpea Flour

Chickpea flour—also labeled gram flour or besan—turns into lacy socca, crisp pakora, and quick savory pancakes. When the bag runs out, you can make your own with just one pantry ingredient: dried chickpeas. Learning how to make chickpea flour takes only a few minutes and is a genuinely useful back-up skill.

What You’ll Need

• 1 cup dried chickpeas (regular garbanzo beans work; split chickpeas/chana dal are also a fine choice)
• High-speed blender or clean electric coffee grinder
• Fine-mesh sieve
• Airtight jar or resealable bag

Use dried, uncooked chickpeas. Canned or cooked chickpeas contain too much moisture to grind into flour.

Make Your Own Batch

1. Pick over and dry the chickpeas. Remove any stones or shriveled beans. If they feel at all moist or sat in a humid pantry, spread them on a rimmed baking sheet and warm them in a 200°F (93°C) oven for 30 minutes. Cool completely before blending.
2. Grind in small batches. For a full-size blender, work with about 1 cup of chickpeas at a time; for a coffee grinder, use much less. Pulse in short bursts so the blades don’t overheat the beans.
3. Shake and scrape between pulses. Chickpea flour settles and sticks, so stop every few seconds to shake the container or stir the powder. Continue until the mixture looks like fine sand.
4. Let the dust settle, then sift. Wait about 30 seconds before opening. Pour the powder through a fine-mesh sieve set over a bowl, then return any coarse bits to the blender and pulse again.
5. Store it airtight. Label the jar with the date. Homemade chickpea flour keeps for about 3 months in a cool, dark pantry or up to 6 months in the freezer. If frozen, let it come to room temperature before opening.

🌾 Note: For a toastier, less beany flavor, warm the dried chickpeas in a dry skillet over medium-low heat for 6–8 minutes, shaking the pan often, until fragrant and just lightly colored. Cool completely, then grind. This step is optional but especially nice in socca and fritters.

Homemade chickpea flour will be a little more rustic than a store-bought bag, and that texture works beautifully in pancakes, fritters, and flatbreads—just sift it again if you need a smoother result. Make a small batch now and you’ll always know the fix when the pantry runs out.

Related Terms:

• where to buy chickpea flour
• chickpea flour
• chickpea fries
• how to dry chickpeas
• chickpea flour pancakes
• chickpea flour recipes