Acceptance of traditional and innovative chickpea dishes by Portuguese home cooks: influence of eating habits, cooking skills and cooking confidence

Home cooks’ preferences and skills have a major impact on household food acceptance and intake. The effects of Portuguese home cooks’ eating habits, cooking skills and confidence in cooking legumes on their acceptance of traditional and innovative chickpea starters and entrées were investigated. Forty-three home cooks (24-50 years, 56% women and with higher education) answered an online questionnaire on general food attitudes and behaviour, and were subsequently interviewed about their chickpea dish preferences. They were first shown cards describing classic Portuguese dishes (chickpea and spinach soup, chickpea and vegetable salad, and Rancho - chickpea, pasta and meat stew) and asked to rate them on a 9-point hedonic scale. Next, they were shown cards describing innovative dish prototypes (sprouted chickpea protein soup, sprouted chickpea and vegetable terrine, and a roasted chickpea and meat burger) and asked to rate their willingness-to-try on a 9-point Food Action Rating Scale. Only 42% of participants rated themselves as ‘good home cooks’. Still, almost all were, to some extent, confident they could prepare tasty and healthy meals using legumes. Most of them (~80%) ate legumes frequently (>2x/week), while consuming chickpeas (70%) much less often (<2x/month). Acceptance of the classic Portuguese cuisine dishes was significantly higher than willingness to try the innovative chickpea dishes - 7.5±1.0 and 6.9±0.9, respectively (t(42)=3.12, p=0.003). Particularly, the chickpea and vegetable salad was significantly more liked than the chickpea and vegetable terrine (t(42)=5.16, p<0.01). Findings will help devise strategies for designing new chickpea dishes with high consumer acceptance, thereby contributing to increase legume intake in Portuguese households.