Nutritional Composition, Antinutritional Factors, and Utilization Trends of Ethiopian Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)

Table 6

Different Ethiopian traditional chickpea-based food products and their preparation mechanisms for utilization.

No.	Product name	Characteristics, processing conditions, and mode of utilization of chickpea-based food products
1	Green immature seeds	The pods are opened by hand, and seeds are eaten green. Green immature chickpea pods harvested a week or two before they mature are consumed as snacks. The green seeds separated from pods have less starch and protein and more sugar than the mature form.
2	Boklet	It is a sprouted whole seed. In this process, chickpea seeds are washed and soaked in water for 5–6 h at room temperature. After washing, all the seeds are kept in a fine cotton cloth for 24–48 h at room temperature for sprouting. During this time, healthy seeds will start to germinate. Germinated and sprouted seeds are washed along with salt and consumed as breakfast.
3	Kollo	It is prepared as follows. The chickpea seeds were soaked or cooked for two days. The soaked seeds were roasted using heat until they will become ready to eat. This popular local snack, kollo, is consumed either alone or in mixed cereals with different legume families, but most of the time, wheat or barley kollo from cereals was mixed with that of chickpea.
4	Nifro	The chickpea grains were soaked for two days at room temperature with water; the soaked chickpea grains were cooked by adding enough water using heat until they will become ready to eat. And they can be mixed with cereals, commonly wheat, and then the snack is eaten after the addition of salt.
5	Shiro	The raw chickpea seed was soaked overnight. After soaking, chickpea grains were dried in sunlight and roasted, then crashed into single cotyledons and milled to prepare the so-called shiro (Ethiopian roasted chickpea which is used to prepare wot eaten with injera). Flour from roasted, dehulled, and spiced chickpea is used as a thickener, and the mixture is allowed to simmer. This is called shiro-wot. Wot is always served with injera, the leavened bread made from cereals.
6	Kik-wot	The raw chickpea seed was soaked overnight. After soaking, chickpea grains were dried in sunlight and roasted, then used as whole, shelled, and split to produce dhal. The wot from the split seed of chickpea was called kik-wot.
7	Genfo (porridge)	Traditionally, in many parts of Ethiopia, there is a habit of preparing genfo for an expectant mother. For this purpose, different cereals, mainly wheat and barley grain, were mixed with legumes like chickpea flour. In addition, genfo is also considered appropriate complementary food for children aged between 6 months and 24 months.
8	Shimbra-asa (chickpea fish)	A popular and unique dish for fasting days is prepared from chickpea as follows. Using dehulled chickpea flour, unleavened small pieces of bread of different shapes are baked on a clay griddle. The same basic sauce mentioned above is prepared, and the bread is dropped into the boiling sauce and allowed to simmer. It is called shimbra-asa wot.
9	Mitad shiro	It is a thick, relatively drier paste made on a clay pan. Chickpea flour was mixed with water with small salt and spry on heated mitad and cooked.
10	Kita	Kita is dry, thin, flatbread with a chew consistency similar to a chewy pretzel. To make kita, the flour is mixed (wheat and chickpea) with water and kneaded by hand with a pinch of salt to make thick unfermented dough. It is then baked immediately on both sides using a clay pan (mitad) or iron pan (biret-mitad). When one side is baked enough, it is turned inside out so as to allow the other side to bake. Kita is relatively thicker and harder bread but smaller in size (about the size and thickness of a pizza base) compared with injera.
11	Infant food	Chickpea is blended with cereals and/or other legumes for preparing foods for infants and young children using traditional food products like chickpea-incorporated maize-based flatbread for preschool children, chickpea stew, and chickpea and corn salad.
12	Injera	Injera is thin and fermented Ethiopian traditional bread made from flour, water, and starter (ersho), which is a small portion from previously fermented dough. It is the most widely consumed food because it accompanies almost all traditional dishes in Ethiopia and is served with sauces. So chickpea is used to prepare injera by being mixed with other cereals.