Chan­na, the savoury sta­ple of our lit­tle is­land. Chan­na isn’t just yum­my, you know. They have a lot of health ben­e­fits too. Chan­na, or chick­peas or gar­ban­zo beans are a good source of fiber, pro­tein and fo­late. The fiber helps pre­vent con­sti­pa­tion, pro­mot­ing reg­u­lar­i­ty and guess what else? The pro­tein and fiber in chick­peas can al­so help keep your ap­petite un­der con­trol.

Chan­na can help you lose weight (once con­sumed ap­pro­pri­ate­ly, of course… don’t go and eat 15 dou­bles then come back and say the chan­na in it makes up for every­thing else). Al­so, since chan­na is rich in pro­tein, it can help in pre­vent­ing hair loss as it con­tains man­ganese, which helps strength­en hair. Plus, chan­na con­tains potas­si­um and vi­t­a­mins C and B6 – all of which sup­port heart health. Who would have thought some­thing so scrump­tious could be so good for you!

Chan­na can be bought dried or canned. For dried chan­na, it is best to use it with­in a year of buy­ing it since the longer it is stored, the dri­er it be­comes, which in­creas­es the cook­ing time. Check dried chan­na be­fore cook­ing and throw out any that are shriv­elled or have bro­ken skin. Al­so, dried chan­na needs to be soaked for at least four hours overnight, be­fore cook­ing. For canned chan­na, en­sure that cans that are not dent­ed, leak­ing, cracked or have bulging lids and store them in a cool, dry place. Here’s a tip: for canned chan­na, drain and rinse them with wa­ter to cut the sodi­um con­tent.