How to Soak, Cook, Freeze and Store Chickpeas

Name: How to Soak, Cook, Freeze and Store Chickpeas
Total time: 2400 s
Cuisine: Pakistani
Ingredients: 1/2 kg Chickpeas; 1 tsp Salt or to taste; Water as required

Sumreen Farooq @Sf_kitchen2012

Bahawalpur

Here is a simple method for quick-soaking and preparing chickpeas for recipes. Chickpeas are soaked before boiling for two reasons – one, they need to be softened before they boil, and two, pre-soaking helps to make the beans more digestible. You can soak them quickly, as described below, or overnight if you prefer.When shopping for your chickpeas, make sure you use a bulk bin with a high turnover rate. The older the chickpeas are, the less tender they will cook. Beans that have been sitting in a pantry for a year or longer tend to go stale and will not cook up as nicely.

Sumreen Farooq @Sf_kitchen2012

Saved

Ingredients

40 minutes

1/2 kgChickpeas
1 tspSalt or to taste
Water as required

Saved

Steps

40 minutes

1

Before cooking, you will need to soak the chickpeas. You can soak them overnight, if you have the time. Place them in a large bowl and cover with tap water. The chickpeas will expand to over double their size, so make sure you cover by several inches of water to allow for expansion. Cover the bowl with a clean towel and let them soak overnight. Drain the water and rinse the chickpeas before cooking.
2

In a pressure cooker, add soaked chickpeas, salt and 6 glasses or as required of water to the pressure cooker. Seal the lid and cook on high Pressure for 20-25 minutes, and then naturally release for 10 minutes. Vent the remaining pressure before opening the lid (you can tell when it is safe to open the cooker when the steam release valve drops).
3

When the beans are fully cooked, drain in a colander and allow to cool.
4

To store cooked chickpeas in the refrigerator, place them in a covered airtight container or a plastic zipper bag without any additional liquid. Cooked chickpeas will keep 3-4 days in the refrigerator.
To store the chickpeas longer for future use, freeze them. Remove as much moisture as possible from the chickpeas by patting them dry with paper towels. Place the chickpeas in Ziploc bags.
Frozen chickpeas will keep for up to 1 year.