Too Many Canned Chickpeas Sitting Around? Throw Them In A Casserole

Canned chickpeas are one of those canned food staples you should always have in your pantry, not just for sudden hummus cravings, but because they're so dang versatile. They're a quick and easy way to fortify lots of meals with both fiber and protein, from taking the place of chicken or shrimp in your favorite pasta dishes to transforming a simple side salad into a main dish. Chickpeas can also skew sweet to be used in desserts like chickpea blondies, or even dessert hummus flavored with honey, vanilla extract, and dotted with chocolate chips in place of the typical savory seasonings.

Of course, making sure you always have canned chickpeas on hand to make a deliciously lemony chickpea salad sandwich can easily turn into having a surplus that's slowly taking pantry space away from your favorite breakfast cereals. In this case, you'll need a recipe that uses several cans of chickpeas to free up some breathing room before your next trip to the grocery store — which is where casseroles come to the rescue. A can or two of chickpeas can take the place of chicken or ground beef in your favorite casserole recipes, which uses up some surplus while keeping Meatless Monday interesting.

There are also hundreds of delicious casserole recipes that use at least two cans of chickpeas as the main protein, along with tons of bright, herby, refreshing Mediterranean flavors. That means this hack is both practical and an opportunity to explore interesting new flavors and styles of cuisine.

When swapping a protein for chickpeas in one of your favorite recipes, you can usually do a one-for-one switch by weight or volume — whichever measurement is used in the original recipe. For instance, if you're making a chicken, mushroom, and winter squash pot pie casserole that calls for 2 ½ cups of shredded chicken, you can use 2 ½ cups of chickpeas instead. Though chickpeas layered inside a casserole will soften up nicely, you can also mash them a bit before adding them to your dish to make the texture more cohesive.

On the other hand, if your recipe calls for 1 pound of ground beef, you can use a food scale to measure out the 1 pound of chickpeas — just be sure to drain and rinse them first. It's also worth noting that these are just guidelines and it's perfectly okay to use your best judgement if an exact substitution looks like too much or too little. For example, if you're measuring out a full pound of chickpeas and it's starting to look like way more than you need, it's okay to use a little less.

One more thing to consider when using chickpeas in any casserole is that they don't add much flavor on their own, so you'll need to compensate for the absence of rich, meaty flavor. Miso paste, vegan bullion cubes, and extra seasoning are all great ways to bridge the flavor gap while still keeping your dish meat-free.