Chick Peas

How to Cook Chick Peas

Have you ever wondered what to do with dried chickpeas (or other dried beans)? We used to as well until we learned how to cook them. Now we almost always have a bag of cooked beans in our fridge or freezer (yes, you can freeze them! See our tips below). Canned chickpeas or garbanzo beans are readily available and we use them in our kitchen. That said, cooking chickpeas is easy, they taste better and you get to control the texture. Chick Peas

If you’re planning on making a dip or spread (like hummus or this mashed chickpea salad), then having a batch of really soft cooked beans ready is perfect.

If you’re adding them to a salad or stew, the option to keep the beans more firm is nice. And if all of that isn’t enough to convince you, it’s ridiculously cheap and you will always know what’s added to the beans. You’ll be a chickpea star!

More basic cooking recipes: See How We Cook Lentils so that they are perfect every time. Or see these Creamy Black Beans.

Our Favorite Methods for Cooking Chickpeas

There’s more than one way to deal with dried chickpeas. I’m going to show you how to cook chickpeas on the stove, in a slow cooker or crockpot, and in a pressure cooker (like an Instant Pot).

Here are three methods we use in our kitchen. All three methods work really well and depending on your day you may find one that makes more sense for you.

After sharing the recipe, many of our readers asked about using a pressure cooker to cook chickpeas. I’ve added tips for pressure cooker chickpeas below.

• Long soak and simmer on the stovetop, which takes about 10 hours or overnight plus 2 hours
• Quick soak and simmer on the stove, which takes about 3 hours
• In the Slow Cooker, 4 hours on high heat or 8 hours on low heat
• In a pressure cooker (like an Instant Pot), about 1 hour

How Many Cups of Cooked Chickpeas Will 1 Cup of Dried Chickpeas Make? Chick Peas

Dried chickpeas triple in size when cooked (if not a little bit more). So 1 cup of dried chickpeas will make about 3 cups of cooked chickpeas.

Using the Stove to Cook Garbanzo Beans

Before cooking on a stovetop, you will need to soak the dried beans. Look through the dried beans and pick out anything that doesn’t look like a bean — sometimes a rock or something else from the bulk aisle sneaks in. Chick Peas

Now you can choose which soak method is best for you. As I mentioned above, we use both methods. It comes down to how much time we have or the time of day.

For example, if you have a late start and need the beans tomorrow, use the long soak method and soak the beans overnight. When you get up in the morning, you’ll have plump beans ready to cook. If you need the beans cooked asap, the quick soak is best.

1. For the long soak method, add the beans to a large bowl and cover them with several inches of water. As the beans rehydrate, they triple in size — adding plenty of water is key. Soak the beans for 8 hours or overnight. After soaking the beans, you can cook them (see how below).
2. For the quick soak method, add the beans to a large pot, cover them with several inches of water and bring them to a boil. Boil for 5 minutes then take the pot off of the heat and let the beans sit in the water for 1 hour. After soaking the beans, you can cook them