What spices go with chickpeas

The same logic as lentils and the same traditional reasoning. Chickpeas are dense and mild and take a savoury background well, and in Jain and satvik cooking asafoetida is what supplies the depth that fried onion would have.

How: In the tempering for chana; In a dry chickpea sabzi

Add alongside: Cumin, Amchoor, Coriander seed

Chickpeas and other pulses are the traditional home of ajwain, and the reasoning attached to the pairing is digestive — the same reasoning that puts asafoetida in the same pot. Its herbal bitterness also gives a dense starchy dish somewhere to go.

How: In the tempering for a chana dish; With asafoetida in a dry chickpea sabzi

Add alongside: Asafoetida, Amchoor, Cumin

Chana without a souring agent tastes flat, and amchoor is the one North Indian cooking reaches for when the dish must stay dry. It sours a chana masala without thinning the sauce, which lemon juice cannot do.

How: Stirred in near the end of a chana masala; In a dry chole with chaat masala

Add alongside: Cumin, Coriander seed, Asafoetida

• Add it late — prolonged cooking dulls the acidity it was added for.

Hummus, falafel and chana masala all rest on it. Chickpeas are nutty and substantial enough to carry cumin at higher concentrations than most vegetables.

Add alongside: Coriander seed, Garlic, Paprika

The defining use, and the reason the spice is reached for rather than a lemon. Chana masala and the dry chole of the Punjab want sourness through the dish and no extra liquid in it — chickpeas already sit in as much sauce as they can carry, and juice added at the end thins it. Ground anardana acidifies from inside the masala instead, and its raisin-like depth suits the earthiness of the pulse in a way a bright citric acid does not.

How: Ground into the masala for chole or chana masala; In a dry chickpea preparation finished without sauce

Add alongside: Cumin, Ajwain, Black salt

• Grind it first. Whole grains stay chewy and the hard inner seed is gritty.

Chickpeas are starchy, mild and slightly sweet, and readily taste flat. Sumac supplies acidity and colour on the surface, where it is tasted first, without thinning a purée the way lemon juice would.

How: Dusted over hummus with olive oil; Tossed through roasted chickpeas

Add alongside: Cumin, Sesame seed

• Stirring sumac into a purée rather than dusting it over the top loses both the colour contrast and most of the impact.

Chickpeas are starchy, mild and fat-poor, and take heat well without being overwhelmed. Chilli supplies both pungency and the red colour that a pale pulse dish otherwise lacks, and the fat used to bloom it carries both through the dish.

Add alongside: Cumin, Turmeric, Coriander seed

• The pungency of the powder is unknown until tasted, and chickpeas give it nowhere to hide. Add half and taste.