How do you soften chickpeas?

lastmanstanding

lastmanstanding

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Bought some chickpeas and they are hard as rocks even after soaking overnight. Any trick to soften it a little bit? Or it goes as manure.
 
lastmanstanding said:
Bought some chickpeas and they are hard as rocks even after soaking overnight. Any trick to soften it a little bit? Or it goes as manure.
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An acid usually will help, like vinegar. But you may not want that. I have Garbanzo Beans (Chick Peas) in dry form and yes, they take a while to soften up.

Skip the pre-soaking. By the time you get any action there, you'll have done much better just boiling at 325F.

Your alternatives are to buy your Chick Peas from frozen foods or in the can. I would prefer the frozen foods solution.

There is another problem doing dry Garbanzo Beans - they can sometimes have a toxic infection from the fields. At any rate, they should be thoroughly washed. The store bought frozen food Garbanzos will have gone through this as part of processing.
 
lastmanstanding said:
Bought some chickpeas and they are hard as rocks even after soaking overnight. Any trick to soften it a little bit? Or it goes as manure.
Click to expand...

They may simply be very old. I once had some chickpeas that I soaked overnight and then boiled for 3 hours and were still hard as bullets!
However, chickpeas do tend to stay quite hard after soaking. If you can be bothered try boiling for an hour to see if they soften.
 
Morning Glory said:
They may simply be very old. I once had some chickpeas that I soaked overnight and then boiled for 3 hours and were still hard as bullets!
However, chickpeas do tend to stay quite hard after soaking. If you can be bothered try boiling for an hour to see if they soften.
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This may be the problem. But I will try some in a pressure cooker too, if possible. Or use some vinegar as flyinglentris suggested.
 
lastmanstanding said:
This may be the problem. But I will try some in a pressure cooker too, if possible. Or use some vinegar as flyinglentris suggested.
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I don't know how your Chick Peas will taste after soaking in vinegar. The only reason I suggested it is that when I plant seeds for exotic plants, it is sometimes recommended to soak them in water and vinegar for a day before hand, sort of like emulating what would happen if the seeds had been ingested by a bird or other animal, ran through their gut and excremented. Without that natural symbiotic process, the seeds would not loosen up and germinate at all.

That's just a fun fact that many gardeners and horticulturalists know.

Some other seeds, like those in pine cones, only loosen up by burning them, as in a forest fire. I don't think you want to burn your Garbanzos. :wink:
 
lastmanstanding said:
Bought some chickpeas and they are hard as rocks even after soaking overnight. Any trick to soften it a little bit? Or it goes as manure.
Click to expand...
You've soaked them, but have you actually cooked them yet? I find they usually remain pretty hard until they've been cooked.
Lots of people add bit of sodium bicarb to the water when soaking dried beans and peas - and I think it does make a difference and helps them cook more evenly.
 
I usually avoid adding baking soda because I don't like very much the idea - if you add too much it softens the chickpeas but also takes nutrients from them.

When they are soaked (overnight or for at least 12-13 hours) the water (cold) should be changed at least a couple of times.

To cook the chickpeas and let them soften also during cooking, cook them gently over a low heat covered with a lid.

I agree with medtran49 about the salt, add it only at the end of cooking or it will harden them during the procedure
 
Cooked them for more than 1 hour, lid closed. I thought vinegar would help because we add some vinegar to hard meats to soften them, and they taste good too (depending on how you cook them of course). I think the only solutions left are too cook in pressure cooker or to put them in the compost barrel. One way or the other I'm going to use it for something. :D
 
The best thing about dry chickpeas is that they still have a firm consistence after cooking. You don't need to add anything to the water, it doesn't make anything better, well for me, because they've some small side effects, or change the taste slightly, when you don't have a problem with that, of course you can do that. Sometimes I soak beans longer than 12 hours and they still get bigger, but I don't know if it changes the consistence. Stay healthy
 
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