How To Cook Chickpeas? Depending on processing!

How to cook chickpeas? Dried chickpeas must first soak in plenty of water for at least 8 hours. Then rinse them under the tap. Bring plenty of water to a boil and add the peas. Now cook them for 1 – 1.5 hours. Only heat chickpeas from cans or glass.

Chickpea belongs to the group of legumes and originates from North Africa. In the Netherlands, you can buy dried chickpeas or canned. Chickpeas are gaining in popularity in the Netherlands, as it is the main ingredient for hummus and falafel. But how can you cook chickpeas?

Chickpeas can be prepared in many more ways than just cooking. You can read more about this in another blog of ours, namely ‘ How to Prepare Chickpeas? Several ways!’. This blog is only about cooking chickpeas.

How Long To Cook Chickpeas

Chickpeas can be cooked for multiple uses. What you will use the chickpeas for further determines the cooking time. It is also important whether you use dry or soaked chickpeas. Or can and glass.

The table below gives an indication of how long chickpeas should cook depending on type and/or application.

Chickpeas from glass and cans are already cooked, these chickpeas just need to be warmed up.

Cooking Dried Chickpeas

Chickpeas that have been dried must first be soaked before they can be cooked. This is necessary because all the moisture has been extracted from the chickpeas. This is done to extend the shelf life of the chickpeas.

If you want to cook dried chickpeas, you can soak them first. This weeks does take some time so you have to take this into account when you start cooking.

Fill a large pot with water and add the chickpeas. Make sure you have enough water, because the chickpeas will absorb the water. As a rule, there should be 10 cm of water above the chickpeas.

Check after two hours how it goes and whether there is still enough water in the pan. If not, top it up, put the lid on the pan and let the chickpeas soak for 8 – 10 hours. You will see that they have now doubled in size. Then drain the chickpeas and rinse them under the tap.

Before cooking, place a pan with plenty of water on the heat source and bring the water to a boil. When the water boils, the chickpeas go into the pan.

Now cook the chickpeas for 1 hour for hard chickpeas and 1.5 hours for soft ones. The great thing about chickpeas is that you can’t break them. It normally can’t go wrong.

Drain the chickpeas in a colander and serve on a plate or rinse with cold water if you are going to use them further in falafel or hummus.

Canned or glass chickpeas usually just heat and not cook.

Cooking Chickpeas Without Soaking

Soaking chickpeas is done for two reasons. The first is that during soaking, the peas absorb moisture, they soften and this significantly reduces the cooking time.

In addition, soaking ensures that the sugars in the peas are broken down. The sugars cause flatulence in our body. So if you soak first, your body can process the peas better. So so pleasant.

If you don’t have time to soak them for 10 hours, you can do it faster. Bring plenty of water to the boil and cook the peas on the highest setting for 8 minutes. Turn off the heat and put the lid halfway on the pan. After 1 hour, rinse the peas in a colander. This is how you flush out the sugars. After that you can start cooking again.

Cooking Chickpeas For Hummus

Hummus is the soft creamy spread that is eaten a lot in the Middle East. It’s a real ‘cult’ there, a way of life. Hummus or hummus or however you write it can be prepared in several ways. We have also written a blog about this ‘ What is hummus and how to prepare it? ‘.

When you are going to make hummus, it is nice to have soft chickpeas. So follow the above method to cook the chickpeas and do this for more than 1.5 hours. This way you get very soft chickpeas that you can easily process into hummus.

Now you can make them into any hummus. As mentioned, you can consult our blog for this.

Chickpeas Cooking Pressure Cooker

You can cook legumes very well in a pressure cooker, all legumes for that matter. Use the soaked chickpeas to cook the peas in a pressure cooker.

Cooking is very easy. Put plenty of water in the pan and add the chickpeas. Close the lid and cook the chickpeas for 20 – 30 minutes. At 20 minutes they still have a ‘bite’ and at 30 minutes they are soft for hummus, for example.

Chickpeas Cooking Baking Soda / Baking Powder

Sometimes sodium carbonate is added during soaking, baking Soda. This is not really necessary but it can have advantages. The baking powder binds to the sugars released during soaking and breaks down the sugar.

The sugars are difficult for the body to digest and also cause flatulence. If you are sensitive to this, adding backing soda may be an option.

Make sure not to use too much baking soda. Too much can cause a soapy or salty taste and you don’t want that. To a large pan of chickpeas, you can add 1 level tablespoon of baking soda. This should be enough and then they also taste good.

How Many Dried Chickpeas Per Person?

Dried chickpeas must be soaked before cooking. As a result, they increase in weight and volume and it is difficult to estimate how many dried chickpeas you will need per person.

You can keep 60 grams of dried chickpeas per person for a meal. These 60 grams are about 100 – 120 grams after soaking and cooking.

Eat Raw Chickpeas

Chickpeas cannot be eaten raw. Raw chickpeas contain the toxic substance lectin. This substance is bad for the kidneys and can cause discomfort in the intestines. By cooking chickpeas, the substance disappears and you can eat the chickpeas. So never eat chickpeas raw.

Canned Chickpeas

Canned or glass chickpeas are (usually) already cooked. You only need to heat these before consuming. Since these chickpeas have already been put together, you can also eat them straight from the jar or can. Eating canned chickpeas raw is therefore not really correct, they have already been cooked.