The fastest way to remove chickpea skins is to rub cooked chickpeas between two kitchen towels, which loosens most skins in under a minute. For a more thorough result, you can pinch each chickpea individually, though peeling a single 15-ounce can this way takes roughly 15 minutes. The method you choose depends on how many chickpeas you’re working with and how smooth you need the final result to be.
Why Bother Peeling Chickpeas
Chickpea skins are perfectly safe to eat, and many cooks skip this step entirely. But if you’re making hummus, falafel, or any dish where a silky texture matters, the skins are what stand between you and a truly smooth result. They create a slightly gritty mouthfeel and a duller appearance in finished dishes. Removing them produces hummus with a noticeably creamier consistency.
There’s also a digestive angle. Chickpeas contain sugars called alpha galacto-oligosaccharides (raffinose, stachyose, and verbascose) that your body can’t fully break down, which leads to gas and bloating. Removing the hulls reduces excess fiber content that contributes to these effects. If chickpeas tend to bother your stomach, peeling them may help.
The Towel Method for Large Batches
This is the go-to technique when you’re working with a full can or pot of chickpeas. Spread your cooked chickpeas on a clean kitchen towel or a few layers of paper towels. Place another towel on top, then gently roll and rub the chickpeas back and forth. The friction loosens most of the skins without you touching a single bean. Gather the loose skins and discard them, then pick through for any that held on tight.
This method won’t get every last skin, but it handles the majority with very little effort. It’s the best option when you’re okay with a “good enough” peel rather than perfection.
The Pinch Method for a Perfect Peel
If you want every skin removed, you’ll need to go one by one. Pick up a chickpea between your thumb and forefinger and give it a gentle squeeze. The skin splits and the chickpea slides right out. It’s simple and oddly satisfying, but it takes time. Peeling a standard 15-ounce can this way takes about 15 minutes at a brisk pace.
A good compromise: start with the towel method to knock off the easy skins, then pinch the stubborn ones individually. This cuts the hands-on time significantly.
The Baking Soda Shortcut
Baking soda creates an alkaline environment that breaks down pectin, the compound holding the skins to the chickpea. This softens the skins so thoroughly that many will fall apart during cooking and rinse away with water. The standard ratio is 1 teaspoon of baking soda per cup of dried chickpeas.
You have two options. The first is to add baking soda to the soaking water overnight before cooking. This gives the alkaline solution hours to work on the skins. The second is to add it directly to the cooking water. Either way, the skins will be dramatically easier to remove after cooking, and many will have already separated on their own. Just rinse the chickpeas well afterward, since residual baking soda can leave a slightly soapy taste.
This method works best with dried chickpeas you’re cooking from scratch. If you’re starting with canned chickpeas, the towel and pinch methods are your main options since the cooking is already done.
Canned vs. Dried Chickpeas
Canned chickpeas are already soft, so their skins slip off fairly easily with either the towel or pinch method. Drain and rinse them first, then proceed with whichever technique you prefer. Some cooks submerge the drained chickpeas in a bowl of water and gently agitate them. Loose skins float to the surface where you can skim them off.
Dried chickpeas give you more control because you can add baking soda during soaking or cooking. The trade-off is time: you need to soak them (ideally overnight) and cook them before peeling becomes possible. But the baking soda method makes the actual peeling step almost effortless compared to working with canned chickpeas, since many skins will have already dissolved.
What You Lose by Peeling
The skins are where a good portion of chickpeas’ insoluble fiber lives. Research on different chickpea varieties found that removing the hull reduced cellulose content by 12 to 26 percent, hemicellulose by 25 to 34 percent, and lignin by about 19 to 27 percent, depending on the variety. Kabuli chickpeas (the large, pale type most common in Western grocery stores) lost less fiber because their seed coat is thinner to begin with.
If you’re eating chickpeas specifically for their fiber content, keeping the skins on preserves more of that benefit. But if your priority is texture or digestive comfort, the fiber trade-off is modest. You’re still eating a high-fiber, high-protein legume. The hull is just one piece of the nutritional picture.
Matching the Method to the Dish
For hummus, peeling is worth the effort. The difference between peeled and unpeeled hummus is immediately noticeable: smoother, lighter, and more cohesive. The baking soda method with dried chickpeas, followed by a quick towel rub, is the most efficient path to restaurant-quality results.
For roasted chickpea snacks, salads, stews, or curries, peeling is unnecessary. The skins add a bit of texture that works fine in chunky dishes, and the visual difference is negligible when chickpeas are mixed with other ingredients. Save yourself the 15 minutes and put it toward something else.