13 Substitutes for Chickpeas (for Hummus, Curries, and Roasted Snacks)

The onion is softening, the spices are toasting, and the can you were counting on turns out to be black beans. Or you want hummus and the pantry has every legume but the one the recipe names. Or someone at the table does not get along with chickpeas and you want the dish anyway.

Chickpeas are one of the easiest ingredients to replace, because the legume aisle is full of close cousins. The catch is that chickpeas do three quite different jobs: they blend into a smooth dip, they hold their shape in a long simmer, and they roast into a crunchy snack. A bean that is perfect for one of those can be a letdown in another. White beans make a silkier hummus than chickpeas do, but they will never roast crisp.

So the substitutes below are grouped by what the chickpeas were doing in your recipe, with exact amounts for each. All swaps assume the standard unit of chickpea cooking: one 15-ounce can, drained and rinsed, which is about 1 1/2 cups.

The Quick List

• Cannellini or great northern beans — the closest all-purpose swap, and the smoothest hummus you will ever make
• Butter beans — big, creamy, and the best pick for salads and stews where you want a meaty bite
• Edamame — a bright green hummus and a crunchy roasted snack, with more protein
• Brown or green lentils — the swap for curries and soups, with the most fiber of anything here
• Red lentils — for a curry where you want a thick, creamy sauce rather than whole legumes
• Black-eyed peas — a similar size and earthy flavor in salads, stews, and grain bowls
• Kidney or pinto beans — sturdy beans for chili-style stews and anything that simmers long
• Lupini beans — the high-protein pick for salads and snacking
• Fava beans — canned for stews, dried for falafel (where they are the traditional choice in Egypt)
• Firm tofu or paneer — for a chickpea curry when you are out of legumes entirely
• Roasted pepitas or nuts — when the chickpeas were just a crunchy topping

First, Figure Out What the Chickpeas Were Doing

Before you reach for a can, think about the job. In hummus and dips, the chickpeas are the body of the dish, and texture is everything: you want a bean that purees smooth without turning gluey. In curries, stews, soups, and salads, they are there to hold their shape, absorb a sauce, and add substance, so the swap needs a firm skin and a creamy middle. In roasted snacks and toppings, they are there to crunch, which very few legumes will do. Falafel is a special case covered further down, because canned chickpeas do not work in it either.

If you have dried chickpeas but no time, that is a substitution problem too. They need an overnight soak and an hour or more of simmering, so for a weeknight, a can of almost any bean below will get dinner on the table faster. If you do plan ahead next time, our guide on how to cook dried beans from scratch covers the soak and the timing.

Substitutes for Chickpeas in Hummus and Dips

A classic hummus is chickpeas, tahini, lemon, and garlic. Swap the base legume and keep everything else the same, and you will still have something recognizably hummus-like. If you are out of tahini as well, our tahini substitutes guide has you covered.

1. Cannellini or Great Northern Beans

• Swap: 1 can chickpeas → 1 can cannellini or great northern beans, drained and rinsed (1:1)
• Best for: Hummus, white bean dips, creamy soups, and as a general swap in almost any chickpea recipe
• Skip it for: Roasting for crunch — they soften and split instead of crisping
• Health notes: A cup of great northern beans has 209 calories, 15 g of protein, 12 g of fiber, and under 1 g of fat, against 269 calories, 14.5 g of protein, 12.5 g of fiber, and about 4 g of fat in a cup of chickpeas

This is the swap to make if you only remember one. White beans have thinner, more tender skins than chickpeas, which is why chickpea hummus can be faintly grainy unless you peel every chickpea and white bean hummus comes out silky with no extra work. They are also slightly less dense, so the dip is a little looser. Drain them very well, start with a tablespoon less water or aquafaba than your recipe calls for, and add more only if you need it.

The flavor is milder and less nutty than chickpeas, so lean a little harder on the tahini, garlic, and lemon. Great northern beans, cannellini, and navy beans are all interchangeable here; navy beans are the smallest and blend just as smoothly.

2. Butter Beans

• Swap: 1 can chickpeas → 1 can butter beans (large lima beans), drained and rinsed (1:1)
• Best for: Hummus, Mediterranean salads, tomato-based stews, sheet-pan dinners
• Skip it for: Crunchy roasted snacks

Butter beans live up to the name: big, soft, and almost buttery inside. In a dip they blend just as smoothly as cannellini, with a slightly sweeter, richer taste. Their real strength, though, is in salads and stews, where their size gives a meaty bite that chickpeas do not quite manage. Stir them in for the last 10 to 15 minutes of a simmer, because their skins are delicate and they turn to mush in a long braise.

3. Edamame

• Swap: 1 can chickpeas → 1 1/2 cups shelled edamame, thawed from frozen and cooked
• Best for: Green hummus, grain bowls, salads, and roasted snacks
• Skip it for: Long-simmered curries and stews — the bright green turns drab and the beans go soft
• Health notes: A cup of cooked edamame has 18 g of protein and 482 mcg of folate (120 percent of the Daily Value), for 188 calories

Edamame hummus is a different dip, not a copy, and that is fine. It is bright green, a little sweet, and grassy in a way that loves lime, cilantro, and a little fresh ginger as much as lemon and tahini. Cook the frozen beans for 4 to 5 minutes in boiling water, then cool them before blending so the color stays vivid. Expect a slightly coarser texture than chickpea hummus unless you blend for a full couple of minutes and add a splash of cold water as you go.

Edamame are also a nut-free, soy-based way to pack more protein into a bowl or salad. Just know that they bring a different flavor, so they work best where the recipe was built around a fresh, light profile rather than a deeply spiced one.

What About Black Beans or Lentils in Hummus?

Both work, but both change the dip more than white beans do. Black beans make an earthy, slate-gray spread that pairs better with cumin, lime, and chipotle than with lemon and tahini, so treat it as a black bean dip rather than hummus. Cooked red lentils (about 1 1/2 cups, from 2/3 cup dry) blend into a fluffy, slightly grainy spread with a milder flavor. Cook them until they are completely soft and let them cool and drain well first, or the dip comes out watery.

Substitutes for Chickpeas in Curries, Stews, Soups, and Salads

Here the job is holding shape and soaking up flavor. Cannellini and butter beans from the section above both work well in this role too. These are the other options.

4. Brown or Green Lentils

• Swap: 1 can chickpeas → 1 1/2 cups cooked brown or green lentils, or 2/3 cup dry lentils simmered right in the dish with about 2 cups of extra liquid
• Best for: Curries, soups, stews, grain salads, and anything you want to stretch further
• Skip it for: Roasted snacks, and recipes where whole chickpeas are the visual centerpiece
• Health notes: The most fiber of anything on this list. A cup of cooked lentils has 16 g of fiber, 18 g of protein, and 6.6 mg of iron (37 percent of the Daily Value), for 230 calories and under 1 g of fat

Lentils are the pantry hero here because you can add them dry. Rinse them, stir them into a soup or curry along with about 2 extra cups of liquid for every 2/3 cup, and simmer for 20 to 30 minutes until they are tender but still holding together. Brown and green lentils keep their shape; French green (Le Puy) lentils hold it best of all, which makes them the pick for salads.

The texture is the trade-off. Lentils are small and soft, so a chickpea curry becomes more of a dal-style stew, with the lentils dispersed through the sauce instead of sitting as distinct, pop-in-your-mouth chickpeas. For most curries and soups, that is a perfectly good dinner, and arguably a heartier one.

5. Red Lentils

• Swap: 1 can chickpeas → 1/2 cup dry red lentils, simmered in the dish with about 1 1/2 cups of extra liquid
• Best for: Curries, soups, and stews where a thick, creamy sauce is welcome
• Skip it for: Salads and anything that needs whole, distinct legumes

Red lentils dissolve. In 15 to 20 minutes of simmering they break down completely and thicken whatever they are cooked in, which turns a brothy chickpea soup into something closer to a creamy puree. That is a feature, not a flaw, if you want a thicker, more comforting dish, and it is exactly how a classic red lentil dal works. Watch the liquid: they absorb a lot, so add water as needed to keep the dish from turning stodgy.

6. Black-Eyed Peas

• Swap: 1 can chickpeas → 1 can black-eyed peas, drained and rinsed (1:1)
• Best for: Salads, grain bowls, stews, and Southern- or West African-style dishes
• Skip it for: Hummus, where they make a slightly gritty, earthy spread

Black-eyed peas are close to chickpeas in size, with a creamy interior and a mild, earthy flavor. They are softer, so they will not survive aggressive stirring, but in a chopped salad or a tomato-based stew they slip in almost unnoticed. Unlike most dried beans, dried black-eyed peas do not need soaking and cook in about an hour, which makes them a good fallback if your pantry has dry legumes but no cans.

7. Kidney or Pinto Beans

• Swap: 1 can chickpeas → 1 can kidney or pinto beans, drained and rinsed (1:1)
• Best for: Chili-style stews, tomato curries like chana masala, and anything that simmers 30 minutes or more
• Skip it for: Hummus, salads with a delicate dressing, and roasted snacks

Kidney beans are the sturdiest bean in the canned aisle, with thick skins that hold up to a long braise. That makes them a solid swap in heavily spiced, tomato-based curries; rajma, the kidney bean curry, is cooked in nearly the same sauce as chana masala. Pinto beans are softer and creamier, and work well in smoky or Mexican-leaning stews. Both have a stronger, beanier flavor than chickpeas, which suits robust sauces and clashes with light, lemony ones.

One safety note if you are cooking dried kidney beans from scratch instead: they contain a natural toxin that is only destroyed by a real boil. Kansas State University food safety experts advise boiling soaked kidney beans for at least 30 minutes and not cooking them from raw in a slow cooker, which may not get hot enough. Canned kidney beans are already fully cooked and safe.

8. Lupini Beans

• Swap: 1 can chickpeas → 1 1/2 cups jarred lupini beans, rinsed and soaked in fresh water for 30 minutes to remove the brine
• Best for: Salads, grain bowls, antipasto plates, and snacking straight from the jar
• Skip it for: Hummus and long-simmered dishes, and anyone with a peanut allergy (see below)
• Health notes: The protein standout of the legume aisle. A cup of cooked lupini has 26 g of protein for 198 calories, nearly double the 14.5 g in a cup of chickpeas, though with less fiber (4.7 g)

Lupini are a Mediterranean snack bean sold in jars of brine, usually near the olives. They are firm, slightly chewy, and pleasantly salty, with a tough outer skin that many people pinch off before eating, though it is edible. Because they come brined, rinse and soak them before using them anywhere you would use unsalted chickpeas, then taste and adjust the dish's salt at the end.

An important caution: lupini are a legume closely related to peanuts, and the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology notes there is known cross-reactivity between the two. If anyone at the table has a peanut allergy, choose a different swap.

9. Fava Beans

• Swap: 1 can chickpeas → 1 can fava beans (sometimes labeled ful medames or broad beans), drained and rinsed (1:1)
• Best for: Stews, Middle Eastern dishes, salads, and dried for falafel (see below)
• Skip it for: Anyone with G6PD deficiency, for whom fava beans can be dangerous

Canned fava beans have a rich, slightly mineral flavor and a creamy, meaty texture. They are the base of ful medames, the Egyptian breakfast stew, and they slide easily into most chickpea stews and salads. The canned kind are usually small, brown, and already peeled; fresh or frozen green favas are a different thing and are best for spring salads and pastas.

10. Firm Tofu or Paneer

• Swap: 1 can chickpeas → 8 to 10 ounces extra-firm tofu or paneer, cut into 3/4-inch cubes
• Best for: Chickpea curries, especially tomato- or spinach-based ones
• Skip it for: Salads where the chickpeas add fiber and heft, and any kind of dip

If there is not a single can of legumes in the house, this keeps a chickpea curry on the menu. Press the tofu for 15 minutes, then sear or bake the cubes until golden before stirring them into the sauce for the last 5 minutes. Paneer gets the same quick sear and a late addition, because a long simmer turns it rubbery. You lose most of the fiber that chickpeas bring, but you gain protein. For more on tofu swaps in the other direction, see our tofu substitutes guide.

Substitutes for Roasted Chickpeas

Crispy roasted chickpeas are the hardest chickpea job to replace, because most beans have too much moisture and too thin a skin to crunch. These are the ones that actually work.

11. Roasted Edamame

• Swap: 1 can chickpeas → 1 1/2 cups shelled frozen edamame, thawed and patted completely dry
• Best for: Snacking, salad toppings, and grain bowls
• Skip it for: Recipes that need the nutty, toasty flavor of chickpeas specifically

Toss thawed, well-dried edamame with a tablespoon of oil, salt, and whatever spices the recipe uses, then roast at 400F for 20 to 30 minutes, shaking the pan halfway, until they are browned and crisp. They go from crisp to burnt quickly at the end, so start checking at 20 minutes. Like chickpeas, they lose their crunch as they sit, so roast them close to serving.

12. Roasted Butter Beans

Roasted butter beans will not crunch all the way through, but at 425F for 25 to 30 minutes, tossed in oil and patted dry first, they go crisp and golden outside and stay creamy and almost fluffy inside, a lot like a tiny roast potato. That makes them a good swap in sheet-pan dinners and warm salads where the chickpeas were roasted alongside vegetables, and less so for a snack bowl.

13. Roasted Pepitas or Nuts

• Swap: 1 can chickpeas (as a topping) → 1/3 to 1/2 cup pepitas, sunflower seeds, or chopped almonds, toasted
• Best for: Salad and soup toppings, grain bowls
• Skip it for: When the chickpeas were the main protein of the dish

If the roasted chickpeas were really just there for crunch, a smaller amount of toasted seeds or nuts does the job in five minutes in a dry skillet. Season them with the same spices the recipe used. You will use far less by volume, since they are much richer, and you lose the bulk and fiber chickpeas add, so this is a fix for a garnish, not a main ingredient.

Substitutes for Chickpeas in Falafel

Falafel is the one recipe where even canned chickpeas fail. Traditional falafel is made from dried chickpeas that are soaked but never cooked, then ground raw with herbs and spices; the raw starch is what binds the mixture as it fries. Cooked beans make a wet paste that falls apart in the oil.

The best substitute is dried split fava beans, which are not a substitute at all in Egypt. There, falafel (called ta'ameya) is made from dried fava beans rather than chickpeas, soaked overnight for 8 to 15 hours. Use the peeled, split yellow kind so you do not have to skin them, swap them 1:1 by dry weight for the dried chickpeas in your recipe, and follow the rest of it as written. The result is greener inside, a little softer, and very good. If you have neither dried chickpeas nor favas, falafel is best saved for another day; recipes built on canned beans are really bean patties, and they need flour or egg to hold together.

Bonus: What About Aquafaba?

If your recipe uses the chickpea liquid as an egg replacer, the liquid from a can of cannellini or great northern beans works almost as well. Use it the same way, about 3 tablespoons per egg, and whip it a little longer if you need stiff peaks. Liquid from dark beans like black or kidney beans will tint whatever it goes into.

Healthier Upgrades

Chickpeas are already one of the most nourishing foods in the pantry, so there is no reason to swap them out for health alone. But if you are curious, a few of these substitutes do bring something extra to the table:

• Lentils for more fiber and iron. Cup for cup, lentils have about 16 g of fiber and 6.6 mg of iron against 12.5 g and roughly 4.7 mg in chickpeas, with a fraction of the fat.
• Lupini or edamame for more protein. Lupini nearly double chickpeas' protein per cup, and edamame add about 25 percent more, which matters if you are building a plant-forward meal around them. (You do not need to obsess over combining plant proteins, as our post on the plant protein myth explains.)
• A mix of legumes for plant diversity. Using half chickpeas and half white beans or lentils counts as two different plants, which helps if you are aiming for 30 different plants a week for your gut.

Whichever legume you choose, rinsing canned beans washes away a good part of the added sodium in the liquid, and buying no-salt-added cans gets rid of most of it. If beans tend to leave you uncomfortable, our post on why beans give you gas has practical fixes that apply to every substitute on this list.

Want to see exactly what a swap does to your recipe? In Eat Well Planner, the Recipe Playground lets you change chickpeas to lentils (or anything else) and watch the nutrition score and fiber count update live, before you commit. And Make It Healthier goes a step further: it proposes swaps like these for your saved recipes and verifies the real nutritional gain with a calculator before it shows you anything. Every legume you add also counts toward your Plant Points.

What Not to Use

• Baked beans or beans in sauce. They are already sweetened and seasoned, and the sauce will take over any curry, salad, or dip. Plain canned beans only.
• Refried beans. They seem like a shortcut for hummus, but they are usually cooked with fat and salt and have a heavy, pasty texture. Blend plain pinto beans instead.
• Chickpea flour. It is a great ingredient, but it is a flour, not a bean. It will not replace whole chickpeas in a stew or salad, and stirring it into hummus just makes a raw-tasting paste.
• Raw dried kidney beans in the slow cooker. As noted above, they need a full boil first. Use canned, or boil dried ones hard before they go anywhere near a slow cooker.

Which Substitute Fits Your Recipe?

For most recipes, a can of cannellini or butter beans is the answer, and you probably will not notice the change. Reach for lentils when you are making a curry or soup and do not mind a softer texture, edamame or lupini when you want more protein, and dried fava beans if you are making falafel from scratch.

If you are still not sure which one suits the dish in front of you, ask. Eat Well Planner's AI Recipe Chat knows the full recipe you are cooking, so you can ask something like "I am out of chickpeas, what can I use in this?" and get an answer for that dish, not a general list. And if you want a fresh take on a classic, our healthier hummus makeover shows how far a few smart changes can take a simple dip.