Chickpeas are usually rapidly boiled for 10 minutes and then simmered for a longer period. Dried chickpeas need a long cooking time (1–2 hours) but will easily fall apart when cooked longer. If soaked for 12–24 hours before use, cooking time can be shortened by around 30 minutes. Chickpeas can also be pressure cooked or sous-vide cooked at 90 °C (194 °F).

Mature chickpeas can be cooked and eaten cold in salads, cooked in stews, ground into flour, ground and shaped in balls and fried as falafel, made into a batter and baked to make farinata or cecina, or fried to make panelle. Chickpea flour is known as gram flour or besan in South Asia and used frequently in South Asian cuisine.

In Portugal, chickpeas are one of the main ingredients in rancho, eaten with pasta and meat or with rice. They are used in other hot dishes with bacalhau and in soups, meat stews, and salads mixed with tuna and vegetables, olive oil, vinegar, hot pepper, and salt. In Spain, they are used cold in tapas and salads, as well as in cocido madrileño.

Ḥummuṣ is the Arabic word for chickpeas, which are often cooked and ground into a paste and mixed with ṭaḥīna (sesame seed paste), the blend called ḥummuṣ bi ṭaḥīna. Chickpeas are roasted, spiced, and eaten as a snack, such as a leblebi. By the end of the 20th century, hummus had become commonplace in American cuisine. By 2010, 5% of Americans consumed hummus on a regular basis, and it was present in 17% of American households.

Chickpeas and Bengal grams are used to make curries and are one of the most popular vegetarian foods in the Indian subcontinent and in diaspora communities of many other countries served with a variety of bread or steamed rice. Popular dishes in Indian cuisine are made with chickpea flour, such as Mirchi bajji and nirmanakaya bajji. In India, as well as in the Levant, unripe chickpeas are often picked out of the pod and eaten as a raw snack and the leaves are eaten as a leaf vegetable in salads. In India, desserts such as besan halwa and sweets such as Mysore Pak, besan barfi, and laddu are made.

Chickpea flour is used to make “Burmese tofu” which was first known among the Shan people of Burma. In South Asian cuisine the chickpea flour (besan) is used as a batter to coat vegetables before deep frying to make pakoras. The flour is also used as a batter to coat vegetables and meats before frying or fried alone such as panelle (little bread), a chickpea fritter from Sicily. Chickpea flour is used to make the Mediterranean flatbread socca and called Panisse in Provence, southern France. It is made of cooked chickpea flour, poured into saucers, allowed to set, cut in strips, and fried in olive oil, often eaten during Lent. In Tuscany, chickpea flour (farina di Ceci) is used to make an oven-baked pancake: the flour is mixed with water, oil, and salt. Chickpea flour known as kadlehittu in Kannada is used for making the sweet dish, Mysore Pak.