chickpea stew with diced zucchinni, red and yellow bell peppers, red onion and chopped parsley in blue bowl.

Chickpea stew combines naturally sweet veggies with simple ingredients for an easy stovetop meal with serious nutrition and satisfying deliciousness.

sliced yellow peppers, sliced red onions, and sliced red peppers in red pot

This summer stovetop recipe is all about colorful veggies that are a bit on the sweet side. Because I was going for sweetness, I used a red and yellow pepper rather than green, which can be slightly bitter. Zucchini, with its naturally sweet flavor, gets creamy as it cooks. That's all the lite sauce this simple dish requires.

The red and the white

To accentuate the sweetness of this stew, I decided to use red onions. Besides, I love the color!

When it comes to onions, you can, in general, make substitutions without compromising flavor. You can slice up different onions (even mix and match) and cook them without adjustment.

I mainly keep a steady supply of yellow, 'all-purpose' onions, and red onions. My choice in using them in recipes usually comes down to flavor and color. Yellow onions, for example, get sweeter the longer you cook them.

So if you use them for this stew, then perhaps give them a few extra minutes to saute.

Onion basics

No matter the color, follow the same procedure when you buy onions. Look for heavy firm ones and store them in a cool, dry place.

Never store onions in the fridge

Onions don’t like the cold humidity of your fridge. Added cold moisture gets under their skin and makes them get mushy much faster.

This rule doesn’t apply to if you peel and slice onions.

Peel the skin, and those naked onions will keep in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. If you slice them, they’ll last a week to 10 days.

Just be sure in both cases that you store them in a container or sealed bag that can handle them. In my experience, it takes about an hour for untethered onions to relentlessly overpower every food in the fridge. I guess that’s one strategy for keeping you from snack browsing.

Sliced yellow and red peppers, sliced red onions, diced zucchini and chickpeas with parsley in red pot.

After deciding on sweet vegetables and getting those cooked, I added 3 cups (2 cans of chickpeas). You won’t even need a can opener for this recipe if you happen to have a stash of chickpeas made from scratch.

How to cook chickpeas

1. Start with 1 ½ cups of dry chickpeas (or double this and make some extra).

2. Rinse the chickpeas and pick out any dark or broken ones.

3. Add the chickpeas to a large pot and add at least 6 cups of water. Be sure there are several inches of water above the chickpeas.

4. Soak the chickpeas overnight (my preferred method). Or, if you don’t have the time, try a quick soak. To do this, just bring the pot of chickpeas and water to a boil and boil them for 3 minutes. Then cover the pot and soak for 4 hours. I call this the ‘I forgot to soak the beans’ method.

5. After soaking (either method), you want to drain and thoroughly rinse the chickpeas. This step helps make beans more digestible. If you are going to use the soaking pot for cooking your chickpeas, be sure to rinse that out too.

6. To cook the chickpeas, add them to a pot along with at least 6 cups of water. You don’t need to be so precise with the water if you are making chickpeas to be used in other recipes. When I make chickpea soup, for example, I’m a bit more precise as I know I’ll be using the cooking water for the soup. But for just chickpeas, adding more water is better than less.

You can also add half a teaspoon of salt. The salt helps bring out the nutty flavor of the chickpeas.

7. Bring the pot to a boil and then lower to a rolling simmer. Try to keep the heat just high enough that the chickpeas are just happily moving around (a medium simmer). If you boil them on high heat, they will lose their shape. That leads to mushy chickpeas with hard centers. Yuck!

8. Are they done yet? Cooking chickpeas should take about 1 ½ to 2 hours. Ultimately, cooking time will depend on your pan, the temperature of the water, and the age of your chickpeas. Soaking overnight helps reduce the cooking time as well.

Test for doneness

The best way to test for chickpea doneness is to taste them. When you bite them, they should be tender to the middle. If you can easily squish them between your tongue and the roof of your mouth, they are done.

9. After cooking the chickpeas, drain them and rinse them again. If you aren’t cooking with them immediately, they can be kept covered in the fridge for up to 5 days.

Home-cooked or canned?

There are plenty of great brands of cooked chickpeas out there, but there are good reasons to cook your own. Bean for bean, there is little nutritional difference between canned and beans from scratch. But you can get more than you bargained for when you opt for canned convenience.

In particular, we're talking about sodium (salt). So if you opt for canned, just be aware that you may get a bit more than you bargained for. Watch the labels or just make your own so you have complete control.

To peel or not to peel

When you make chickpeas from scratch the first time, be prepared that they may shed their skins. This is fine. It happens more with chickpeas that are older.

Chickpeas have a thin skin. It's not necessary to peel them. I know some folks swear that hummus just isn’t the same without peeling, and I’ll leave that to you. If you want to crisp up spicy chickpeas for something like stuffed and loaded sweet potatoes, then you never want to peel them.

For chickpea stew, the texture is more varied if the chickpeas are firmer. Skins on help with the firmness. Besides, the skins provide extra fiber and we should all like that.

chopped parsley is added to pot with sliced red and yellow bell peppers, diced zucchini, red onions and chickpeas.

Besides the veggies and chickpeas, I just added a tablespoon of red wine vinegar at the end of cooking. This gives you an extra zip of flavor by balancing the sugar without overpowering the rest of the dish. We like a bit of chopped parsley as a garnish, but it would be equally good with basil or even chives.

Blue serving bowls with chickpea stew with diced zucchini, red and yellow peppers, red onions and chopped parsley.

How to vary this dish

We love the combination of sweet peppers, red onions, and zucchini, but if you want to put your unique stamp on chickpea stew, here are a few ideas:

Diced carrots

Yellow squash

Broccoli florets

cauliflower florets

green peas

Colorful chickpea stew with diced zucchini, red and yellow peppers, red onions, chickpeas and chopped parsley in white bowl.

Final thoughts

Red or yellow, chickpeas from scratch, or from the can, the intended result for this simple stew is the same – quick, satisfyingly delicious food that makes you feel good. We should strive for that with every meal. With easy recipes like this, I for one, believe it's achievable. Peace.

Colorful Stovetop Chickpea Stew