I’ve been making Chana Masala lately, trying different tweaks of various recipes. It seems everyone agrees that using canned chickpeas is the way to go, and I’ve been happy with the results.
I decided to give dried chickpeas a chance. I soaked them in water 24 hours, then proceeded with my favorite recipe. When I tasted them prior to plating, I was surprised. My sauce was spectacular, but the chickpeas were still hard! Forty five more minutes of simmering, and they were still not soft, though edible (barely).
I’ve never cooked chickpeas. I always use a slow cooker when I make beans. For black-eyed peas, pinto beans, etc. I cook them on high for at least six hours.
Yeah, when I cook dried chickpeas, it’s usually unsoaked and in the Crockpot on low for 8 - 10 hours, or in the pressure cooker on high for an hour. They take a lot longer that most beans. Before we got the pressure cooker, I would throw them in the Crockpot with water before I left for work in the morning and proceed with the rest of the recipe on the stovetop when I got home.
The chickpeas cooked around 40 minutes. Using canned garbanzos this would have been perfect. I continued to simmer an additional 45 minutes, and they were marginally improved.
The chickpeas could have been years old. I don’t think my grocery store sells much. I’ve used dried chickpeas before to make chickpea flour for another recipe. That worked fine.
Yeah, on the stovetop, chickpeas take at least 2 - 3 hours unsoaked, quite possibly longer. It’s been years since I did them on the stovetop, though. You just needed more time.
Oh how I wish. There is one Indian Food Truck that visits breweries around here. I began cooking Indian food after trying his food and trying to emulate it. He’s given me tips.
My Gobi Manchurian and Chana Masala are as good as his (I’ve taken him some for evaluation). Of course he’s working quickly in a truck, while I’m leisurely cooking at home.
I’ve cooked chickpeas. Don’t usually bother to soak, but yeah, they take a long time to cook. I did them in a pressure cooker, and they still took about 90 minutes. Pressure cookers reduce cooking time by anywhere from 1/2 to 1/4, so I would guess that unsoaked beans in a slow cooker set on high would take 3-6 hours.
I usually use canned.
I wouldn’t soak in the fridge. That probably did make the soaking less effective.
I’ve been getting some fresher dried chickpeas lately that cook in under an hour, but if you have a batch of older beans, they can be awful. There have been times I’ve had to switch over to a pressure cooker after boiling in a regular pot for hours, which finally does the trick.
You might have better luck with mail order and chickpea freshness nowadays.
That’s more than likely the issue. We eat a fair amount of beans and peas, and every now and again, we’ll get a bag that just won’t get tender, even if they’re soaked, pressure cooked, etc…
On the flip side, our blackeyed peas yesterday were ones we harvested from our garden this past summer/fall and dried, and they got tender REALLY quickly. So freshness does matter!
