Homemade Chickpea Pasta
Chickpea flour is one of my favorite gluten-free flours to experiment with in the kitchen. Made from finely ground chickpeas (garbanzo beans), the flour is packed with protein and fiber. It has just a slight chickpea flavor that can be either complimented or hidden with other flavors, depending on your end goal.
So far, we've made pancakes, socca, and the world's creamiest and smoothest hummus with chickpea flour. Seriously, it is worth buying a bag of the stuff just for the hummus. You can normally find it in the gluten-free baking section of your grocery store. We buy Bob's Red Mill brand.
Besides the hummus, my favorite thing to come out of the discovery of chickpea flour is homemade pasta. The beauty of this pasta dough is in its total simplicity. Just a handful of ingredients- and one happens to be water. It doesn't get much easier than that.
The end result is a soft pasta with a slightly nutty flavor from the flaxseed. You won't be fooling any die-hard white/refined pasta fans, but if you tend to like more hearty carbs, this is a pasta for you. We paired it with some vegan roasted red pepper pesto, and it was an amazing combo.
My favorite pasta-making method is 100% (wo)man-powered. I pile up the flour on a board, make a well, and then dump in the egg (or in this case, flax egg). Then I slowly incorporate the flour with the wet ingredients until it forms into a nice solid dough. At first, it always seems like there is way too much flour, but I promise it'll all combine nicely if you just keep working it. Be patient.
If you have a pasta roller and cutter, awesome blossom! Go ahead and use those to your liking. I do not. So I used my good ol' rolling pin and pizza cutter. The key to good pasta is rolling it out very, very thin. Thinner than you think it should be. The pasta will double or triple (or even more) in thickness from absorbing the cooking water.
If you are going the rustic simple method, like I did, try to stick with pasta shapes that can accept some imperfection. Farfalle (bow tie pasta) is perfect for those of us without a pasta cutter. Just cut into squares and pinch, and you have some adorable, rustic bow ties. Pappardelle-which are big, long, wide noodles like the ones pictured here-work perfectly, too!
When I first made this recipe, I did it with just three ingredients-flaxseed, chickpea flour, and water-and the end result was manageable, but was a bit tricky to work with when forming into pasta.
After a bit of retesting, we figured out that adding some fat (in the form of olive oil) and some stickiness (in the form of tapioca flour) really helps to make the pasta a lot easier to work with. We've updated the recipe below with the new measurements, but if you liked the old version, you can download that recipe in the header of the recipe card or right here.
📖 Recipe
Gluten-Free and Vegan Chickpea and Flaxseed Homemade Pasta
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons golden flaxseed meal
- 6 tablespoons warm water
- 1 ½ cups chickpea flour
- ¼ cup tapioca flour
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- 2 teaspoons olive oil
Instructions
- Mix the flaxseed and warm water in a small bowl and set aside for about 10 minutes, or until thickened. Meanwhile, whisk together the chickpea flour, tapioca flour, and salt in a large bowl.
- Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and add the flaxseed and water mixture. Stir until large crumbles form, and then add the oil and knead with your hands until the dough comes together and can be formed into a ball.
- Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and set aside for 20-30 minutes.
- Bring a pot of salted water to a boil.
- Dust a large surface, your hands, and a rolling pin with chickpea flour, and roll the dough out until very thin. The dough is tough, so this will be a bit of a workout. Slice into long strips ½-inch wide to make fettucine (or cut and fold into your desired shape).
- Once the water has come to a rolling boil, add the pasta and cook for 1-3 minutes, or until al dente. If the pasta is cooked for too long, it will begin to break into pieces. Drain and serve hot with your favorite sauce.
Nutrition
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So TASTY and peppery, even served just with extra virgin olive oil!
I had to add an extra spoon or 2 of water and use a wide glass instead of a rolling pin, without added flour (it was not very sticky), flatening 1 tiny peice of dough at a time until it looks moist, you can see light through (1-3mm) and use scissors to delicately cut teardrop shapes, reflattening the rest again.
It's not a bendable dough. It's a LOT of work, too much work if your alone and already hungry so split the batch in 8 and make it ahead of time.
I froze it overnight and boiled 40-50 noodles in big boils in lots of water for about 4 minutes. They stuck a LITTLE bit together so I'd add oil or butter in the pot next time but ooverall quite SATISFYING! I can't eat gluten and had both ingredients on hand so thank alot for the recipe!
I absolutely loved this pasta! The hearty texture and nutty flavor were superb. Personally I prefer a whole grain texture over the refined processed texture so this pasta was perfect for me. Luckily I was able to borrow a kitchen aid from a friend and it worked wonderfully for this dough. It was my first time making homemade pasta so my dough wasn't perfect (pretty sticky) but the linguine pasta attachment worked very well. Awesome recipe!!
Each time I tried to boil them they disinterested into the water, even tried adding egg in an attempt to keep them from dissolving. Not my fondest three hours spent...
These are amazing! We just made them today and loved them. A bit more on the rough side (think wholegrain), but the taste, look and texture was very nice. I made them into very thin (between Vermicelli and spaghetti), tagliatelle with different thickness, and even some farfalle (the ribbon ones). I liked the very thin ones the best, but the other were good as well. Recommended!
Could this recipe possibly be used as a pizza crust? I've seen garbanzo bean pizza crust, but was wondering about adding the flaxseed meal to it? Do you have an opinion? Thank you!
Hello,
I am so glad I came across your website!
My family just turned dairy free and I wanted to surprise them with some pasta for dinner.
I tride this with pumpkin seed flour and it didn't really work out. I was wondering if you had any tips for a better result? (It was still good though!)
Thanks for the post.
Tried the recipe twice today—once to eat right away and try different shapes and lengths
The second batch was to store in the refrigerator for tomorrow and see how it stores.
These tests were part of the practice for a work potluck next week of chickpea ravioli stuffed with roasted vegetables. Haven't decided on the vegs.
Have you made flavoured pasta? Thinking fresh basil, sun dried tomatoes, pesto, cheese, etc.
Do you think you could put this concoction in a pasta maker??
I'm not sure, I've never tried (I don't even own one). If you do try it, let me know!
Wow, that pasta looks great!
Are you supposed to use 1.75 cups chickpea flour, or between 0.75 to 1 cup?
Thanks, Edan
1 and 3/4 cups flour. 🙂
Thanks for the quick answer! These look great, I'll probably make them soon.
can I use just normal flax seeds? do I have to buy ground flax seeds?
Yes, you can use normal flax seeds and just grind them yourself.
Nanna, Not exactly true - I went to a website, Gaia Research on Flaxseed to check out your comment.
The following is copied from that website
Correctly processed raw flaxseed can have reduced levels of the strong laxative/purgative effects normally associated with the high cyanogenic glycoside mucilage component of flaxseed, which otherwise releases toxic hydrogen cyanide via auto-hydrolysis in the presence of water in the gut. Although this is associated with a non-targeted additional laetrile-type of anti-cancer effect, it strongly limits the amount of the most healthful SDG, which could otherwise be consumed. A typical concentration of SDG in oil-free flaxseed is around 1.5%. Careful processing can concentrate the SDG, whilst reducing the glycosides, allowing for a much-reduced gastric challenging serving size suitable for an optimal daily dosage.
Okay, so how do I make sure that it is correctly processed?
I would show you the website where I found my information, but it is in Danish, so I doupt it would help 😉
actually flaxseeds secrete hydrogen cyanide when comminuted, so it's probably better to use them not grounded if you don't want to be poisened
Thank you for this recipe!!!! A life saviour for me this Christmas as we are having a vegan feast but my sister needs to be gluten-free for now.
I am making artichoke filled ravioli with it and the tests I did so far worked really well!
xxx
T.
Thanks Cassie! I just made this and I think it will be a great recipe once I've perfected the art of rolling pasta really thin. I rolled it quite thin but obviously not enough as the pasta bows were about twice as thick and wide as normal packet pasta. Still, the flavour was good and definitely reminiscent of ordinary pasta. I'm definitely going to try this again! Awesome for if you're cooking for a gluten free vegan. Cheers 🙂
I just made this. Tasted delicious! I'm going to make this every time I want pasta! Wonder how it would work as ravioli with pesto inside. Will try that next time 😀
How long do you boil i for?
Never mind. I re=read the recipe and instructions. LOL
This is a great sight! Great idea and can't wait to try it.
I make my own chickpea flour and use it for so many things and
this is what I have been looking for. I am so excited!
Thank you for this post!! ♥
You know, traditional southern Italian/Sicilian pasta recipes often consist of only flour, water, salt, and olive oil. In these it is essential to properly develop the gluten through kneading. Do you think some of the brittleness experienced with your recipe could be improved upon by kneading the flax meal mixture into the dough for a longer period of time?
It could be, although since there is no gluten to develop, I'm not sure it'll make much of a difference. But it's worth a shot! Let me know if you try it out.
I made these with soy flour. I had to add about 2 T more water, but they came out delicious!
Would this work for ravioli dough?
I haven't tried it, but I don't see why not. Let me know how it turns out if you try it!
Thank you for the recipe, it was easy!
I made it for my son who might have gluten sensitivity.
He loved it too.