Dried chickpeas generally need to be soaked before cooking as they are very hard. Depending on where you buy your chickpeas from you may need to sort through them first and remove any stones.
Slow soaking dried chickpeas: Tip them into a bowl and cover with cold water, and use plenty of water as they will swell as they soak. Leave overnight or for 8-12 hours to absorb water and swell.
Quick soaking dried chickpeas: Tip your chickpeas into a saucepan and cover them with lots of cold water, bring to a boil. Turn off the heat and leave to soak for 1 hour.
Stove top cooking dried chickpeas How long your chickpeas will take to cook will depend on how long they have been dried and stored for.
Drain your soaked chickpeas and tip them into a pan.
Add cold water until you have twice the volume of the chickpeas.
Bring the water to a boil, then turn the heat down and simmer the chickpeas for 45 mins (if you are going to cook them further in another dish) or up to 1 hour. Taste to see if they are tender. If not, continue cooking, checking the tenderness every 10 mins. Drain.
If you want to cook a whole bag at a time and freeze them in batches then cool them first. They will freeze for up to a month or keep in the fridge for up to three days.
Instant pot or pressure-cooking dried chickpeas Chickpeas can be cooked from dry or pre-soaked in a pressure cooker. If you soak them for 12 hours, then they will cook in minutes, but you can also skip the soaking altogether. Chickpeas can be pressure-cooked from dry in 40 minutes, plus the time it takes for the pressure to rise and fall.
Skin the chickpeas to make super silky hummus If you have ever eaten a very smooth hummus, then it’s likely that the cooked chickpeas were skinned. Chickpeas have a thin skin that can easily be slipped off if you have the time or inclination.
Comments