Is Soaking and Cooking Dried Chickpeas (Garbanzo Beans) Worth It?

I love chickpeas!  They are a staple ingredient for hummus, falafel, curries, soups and stews.  Little Miss 5’s favourite Foogo lunchtime item at the moment is this Chickpea Salad.

Most recipes call for cooked chickpeas, and often people just use tinned chickpeas for this.  I am one of those people – I do keep a couple of tins of chickpeas in the cupboard at all times for quick meals and snacks (such as Roasted Chickpeas, hummus, or to tip into a curry), but soaking and cooking my own from scratch is my preferred option for the following reasons:

• taste: I find them richer and fuller in taste than canned, and creamier in texture
• cost: feeding a family of 6 means cost is always at the forefront of my mind.  Buying dried organic chickpeas and cooking them myself is cheaper than buying conventional tinned chickpeas
• additive-free: no BPA from the can lining, I can control the amount of salt if any, and I buy organic
• digestibility: some people have trouble digesting beans, so preparing them at home ensures they are more digestible and easier on a sensitive digestive system.
• the freeze well and keep for up to a year in the freezer, so I can prepare a large batch at once and be set up for a good length of time.

Chickpeas are one of the larger and harder legumes, and therefore possibly one of the hardest to digest.  They are high in oligosaccharides, complex sugars that all legumes contain and our digestive enzymes can have trouble breaking down, but chickpeas contain them in higher quantities than other legumes such as mung beans and lentils.

To cook dried chickpeas to make them more digestible they need to be soaked for 12-24 hours, up to 36 hours or so if you wish.  This also decreases the cooking time.

Cooking Dried Chickpeas

Method:

1. Use whatever quantity of chickpeas you choose
2. Rinse well, then cover with at least twice the quantity of water (the chickpeas will swell considerably with soaking).  Add 1 tsp apple cider vinegar to the soaking water, and leave for 12-36 hours.
3. When you are ready to cook them, drain, rinse well, then add to a pot with at least 3 times the amount of cooking water.  You can also add herbs or bay leaves at this point if you wish.  Do not add salt until right near the end.
4. Bring to the boil, and scoop off any white froth that gathers on the surface of the water.
5. Cover, turn down to a simmer and cook for 2-4 hours, until tender.
6. Drain when cooked and use as required.
7. To freeze, pat the chickpeas dry with a paper towel, then transfer into freezer bags.  I try to lay them flat in the bag to minimise sticking together, and stack bags one on top of the other.
8. Keep in the freezer for up to a year.

So are dried chickpeas worth the effort?  Absolutely!  Will I never ever use tinned chickpeas again?  You betcha I’ll use them, I still consider them an option for quickly whipping up some homemade hummus or making some roasted chickpea snacks in a hurry.  What are your thoughts?

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