Does anyone have any good recipes with chickpeas - possibly ones that give them a slightly smoother texture? Everything I've tried so far have left me with this dry, grainy texture, and I was hoping someone had tips or tricks to new and exciting ways to cook these? I love the flavor but I have a hard time stomaching the texture of them.

I know you asked for a smoother texture, but how about a crunchier one? Have you tried roasting chickpeas? Toss with olive oil, a little salt, garlic, nutritional yeast, whatever you like really, and put on a baking sheet in a 400 degree oven for about 20-30 minutes. So good! My other absolute favorite is a recipe from "The Vegan Lunchbox" by Jennifer McCann - chickpea salad. Roasted chickpeas made like I said with some salt and nutritional yeast, plus celery, toasted pecans, green onions, some toasted sesame oil and Vegenaise... in a pita with some lettuce and tomato... OMG.

Do you mean for hummus?  Try adding roasted red peppers and marinated artichoke hearts to the standard recipe (tahini, garlic, lemon, salt, olive oil), and then give it a few extra minutes in the food processor so that it gets smooth and billowy.   Before I started doing this my hummus was too dry and a little bland.  

yess roasting them is the best! i toss them in a taco seasoning and i have them for tacos and on salads for a few days, also theres this "dumpling"soup recipe on www.peasandthankyou.com that has chickpeas and my whole fam likes them and they are like anti bean people so its worht a try lol

@starflower....that recipe sounds so good but I have a question before i bake the chickpeas are they dried or cooked first before baking them? 

Hi...I was at a vegan cafe recently and they offered a chickpea salad recipe.. I had a seitan reuben but this chickpea salad sandwhich will be my next try.  I think it was kind of an egg salad slant with veganaise and mustard and slightly mashed a bit perhaps you could do fresh garlic and diced red onion and peppers and maybe a splash of lemon juice?

I've also soaked them and roasted them on a cookie sheet with cina mon and a bit of sweetener.  You could also come up with a savory seasoning and have a nice lowfat snack.

I use the dried ones and cook them myself for about 20 mins in a pressure-cooker. But canned would be fine for the roasting recipes too. Oh - I also do more of a "Tuna-fish" type chickpea salad sandwich like februarygirl mentioned - slightly mash cooked or canned chickpeas and add Vegenaise, relish, mustard, celery... whatever you might have put into a chicken or tuna salad before you were vegan.

have you tried it with a big bowl of quinoa with water chestnuts,toms.courgettes dressed with lashings of passata,cold-pressed avocado and olive oil,half lemon,mint,basil pinch of sea salt? so yum-can swap chickpeas for hazlenuts if want-as i do cause i can't have chickpeas-xxx.

Thank you all for the great suggestions :) I can't wait to try them out!

I want to ask though - do I boil the chickpeas before I roast them or just soak them and roast them? Does it make a difference?

you ladies are all making me very hungry. lol

cook them before roastin uunless using canned

Moroccan Chickpea Stew. I make this weekly.              http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/dave-lieberman/moroccan-spiced-chickpea-soup-recipe/index.html

Have you looked on www.vegweb.com ?  I have a chana masala recipe I'm dying to try.  Or postpunk kitchen has a chana masala recipe too that sounds good.  And The Happy Herbivore has a way to roast them that I, too, want to try!  I'm new with them too--so you aren't alone.  I just buy them canned... at least until I get used to cooking with beans!  I love cooking, but I'm a new cook--and a lazy one sometimes at that! 

Astrid, the dry grainy texture could also be an indicator of stale chickpeas.  Unfortunately this can happen even if the bag or can isn't expired (it's the quality).  My favorite chickpea based recipes are chickpea cutlets (http://www.theppk.com/2010/11/doublebatch-chickpea-cutlets/) and chickpea picatta (http://www.theppk.com/2010/09/chickpea-picatta/).  I make both of these often with delicious success.