Have you ever spent so much time thinking about doing something that by the time you actually do it you worry that it won’t even be close to what you imagined? That is me, 24/7. But it’s especially me when it comes to this post. Yes, a post about cooking chickpeas. By the way, the instructions for how to cook chickpeas in an Instant Pot are at the very bottom of the post, so if you don’t feel like reading this (I don’t blame you), scroll, baby, scroll.
I have been wanting to write this post for over 2 years, and I’ve started it several times but never got it just right. And you know what? This one probably isn’t just right either, but dang it it’s going out into the world anyway because it’s CHICKPEAS for crying out loud. I somehow make everything a much bigger deal than it needs to be. I think I need therapy.
(searches for appropriate segue…comes up empty)
So, while this is a post about saving money by cooking chickpeas in an Instant Pot (more on that in a minute), this is really more of inside look into the inner-workings of my brain. If nothing else, I hope you come away from this thinking, “Well, at least I’m not THAT crazy.”
My goal with this post was to answer the age old question, the one that philosophers have been wrestling with since the dawn of the canning process. Is it really cheaper to cook dried beans from scratch? Spoiler alert: The answer is yes. But proving it in my very own kitchen proved to be more math than I expected, at first.
I started with three cans of chickpeas and a big bag of dried chickpeas from the bulk section at my grocery store. Here was my thinking:
Drain and weigh the contents of canned chickpeas.
Cook the equivalent weight of dried chickpeas.
Compare.
Here’s how it went.
First, I got out my handy-dandy kitchen scale.
Then, I tared/zeroed the weight from the bowl where I’d place the drained chickpeas.
As we can see here, 3 15-ounce cans of chickpeas, drained, weigh in at 1 pound, 11 ounces.
Next, I measured out enough dried chickpeas to weigh 1 pound, 11 ounces (ok, technically 11 and 3/4 ounces, whoops).
Then I cooked the dried chickpeas in the Instant Pot (see instructions below).
It took three batches to weigh them, but in adding them up it turns out that 1 pound and 11 ounces of dried chickpeas weighs just over 4 pounds after cooking!
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that 4 pounds is more than 1 pound, 11 ounces. 🙂
Ok, sounds great, Beth, but you still haven’t proven that it’s cheaper!
Here’s where my brain started to go a little haywire. I wanted to give you a simple comparison, but by starting with a random number of canned chickpeas, I had an even more random weight as my baseline. That made doing the comparison math really frustrating. For example…
3 cans of chickpeas costs $1/each (avg.)., for a total of $3.
The weight of 3 cans of chickpeas, drained, is 1 pound 11 ounces.
One pound of dried chickpeas is $2.50 (avg.).
The weight of 1 pound and 11 ounces of dried chickpeas, cooked, is 4 pounds 8 ounces.
4 pounds 8 ounces divided by $2.50 compared to 1 pound 11 ounces divided by $3.00 = MATH I DO NOT WANT TO DO.
I know it seems really dumb that I didn’t want to do that math. It’s really not that much math, and it’s a basic calculation, we’re not talking algebra. But I figured, if I didn’t want to do it, then chances are you didn’t want to do it either. So I found a simpler way to explain things, and it’s a bit more visual. Ready?
To simplify things, I used one pound of dried chickpeas as the reference point. 1 pound of dried chickpeas yields 2.5 pounds by weight. It takes five 15-ounce chickpeas (drained) to equal 1 pound of dried chickpeas after they have been cooked.
After going to 5 different stores in my area of varying price points (Walmart, Kroger, Whole Foods, etc.), I learned that the average cost for a 15-ounce can of organic chickpeas is $1.00. At Costco, I can get them for .75/each, sometimes cheaper (in an 8-pack). Dried chickpeas run anywhere from $1.25 (conventional) to $3.00 (organic). I went with $2.50 as the average to stay on the high side (made for a fairer comparison, in my mind).
To answer the question, FINALLY: It costs $5 to buy the same amount of canned chickpeas that can be cooked at home for $2.50. Twice as much, basically. AND, no cans to open!
So there you have it, folks. Even when you are buying organic dried chickpeas, it is still much cheaper to cook them from scratch (in an Instant Pot, of course), then it is to buy them canned. And by using an Instant Pot, your total hands-on time is 15 minutes or less, and that includes the time for packing the chickpeas for storage and cleaning up. Not to mention, no fumbling with a can opener or adding a bunch of cans to your recycling bin. Will there be times when you reach for the can? Of course, I do it. This is just one small way you can save yourself some money, time, and waste.
But wait, there’s more! A video!
Because my obsession with this topic can’t be suppressed, I did a Facebook Live video to demonstrate the cost savings of dried chickpeas over canned. I also share about my grocery shopping adventures where I learned that canned chickpea prices are all over the map, and there’s one brand in particular that is just obscenely high. Watch the video to find out who it is!
Secret Weapon Peanut Butter Cups
Vegan Chickpea Salad Sandwiches
And with that, I am off to roast some chickpeas for Thai Chickpea Pizza. Oh yes. This is happening. Get ready.
How to Cook Chickpeas in an Instant Pot
Ingredients
- 1 pound of dried chickpeas
Instructions
- Pick over the chickpeas to remove any that are discolored or shriveled. Rinse and drain in a colander.
- Optional: Soak the chickpeas in filtered water overnight and maybe add a strip of kombu seaweed too (helps with gas, supposedly). Drain and rinse before proceeding to the next step.
- Add the chickpeas to the insert of an Instant Pot and cover with water by 3-4 inches.
- Set the Instant Pot to High Pressure, and adjust the timer to 35 minutes (12 minutes if using soaked chickpeas)
- When the cooking time is up, turn off the Instant Pot and wait 15-20 minutes, then release any remaining pressure before unlocking the lid.
- Strain off the liquid (keep it for aquafaba!), and refrigerate or freeze the chickpeas in whatever portions you like (I prefer 3 cups, as that is the equivalent to two cans of chickpeas).
Notes
Nutrition
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Hannah, is that you?
Hannah if you read this, it’s a compliment, his question. 🙂
Lol! ?
I Just love your web page! Only discovered it today and already have the lentil soup in the pressure cooker. Next thing is going to be a bath load of Chickpea curry :))
Hi Liz! Thanks so much for the kind comments and for making the recipe! So sorry for my tardy response, I took a bit of a break this summer and am playing catch-up. 🙂
It’s nice to see it in hard numbers…thanks for going to all that work for us, Beth! Also, I think that the protein from the chickpeas + the protein in the peanut butter means that you can eat the Secret Weapon Peanut Butter Cups for dinner. Or lunch. Or breakfast. ?
I totally agree, Hannah. 😉
Another handy and great advantage to cooking dried chick peas is you can add Kombu seaweed to alleviate the gas. I live in New Zealand and they don’t have canned chick peas with Kombu, but I am sure they are way more expensive to buy that way. The process really works!
Good point, Mary! I mentioned that somewhere in the post, but as I can’t remember off the top of my head, I clearly didn’t call it out enough. 🙂 I’ll make a point to give kombu its due!
So, how often do people actually find chickpeas (or lentils, or split peas etc) that are bad or have pebbles in them. And what happens if the shriveled ones make it in. I always read that I should pick over the dry beans but it’s such a pain and I never seem to find anything so I have gotten lazy and never do it! Just like I’m lazy and rarely ever cook dry beans anyways. These visual instructions really help and make it not seem so daunting. I am still a little afraid of my Instant Pot.
Next question: how old is too old for dried chickpeas? I think I may have had the ones I currently have for 2 or 3 years…
Ok, my dear friend, you must not remember the time you bit down on a rock after cooking lentils and vowed never to skip the sorting step again! 🙂 Seriously, though, I hear you. I don’t spend a ton of time picking through, just a quick peek. 🙂 Um, 3 year old beans are probably too old. I’d probably cook 1/4 cup or so on the stove as a test. If they’re not done after a couple of hours, your beans are too old. Otherwise, go for it! 🙂
Don’t fear the Instant Pot. It wants to be your friend. 🙂
I hear that if you soak old beans in water with baking soda it will correct the problem and they will be cookable. I have not tried it yet, but I may as I never get around to cooking my beans.
Totally agree. Found a pebble sorting kidney beans once. The quickest way to sort is to use a white plate or flat bottom cereal bowl. Pour a single layer of dry beans on a white plate, look for pebbles/debris and discard, pour the good beans it a bowl, repeat. Takes less than a minute to sort.
Love this tip, Anne! Makes total sense. Thanks for sharing!
I use a cookie sheet with a rim.
You are very funny and think the same way I do. I could have had my beans cooked hours ago but I am still researching. Thanks for the tip!
Researching lol is my number one procrastination tool!
Me too!!!😥
Many times I tried to pick out a ‘shriveled’ bean only to find I disturbed a clump of dirt as it turns to mud!
I’ve also come across pebbles.
I have chickpeas in my insta pot right now!
you are hysterical. thank you. Just got my intant pot a few days ago and am experimenting. I’ve had a pressure cooker for years. can I use the same recipes without alteration? Thanks. Be well. (we used to live in seattle)
Hey Beth – thanks for this post, and the great cost breakdown. I knew dried beans presented a savings over canned, but never knew how much!
A question regarding the recipe – the Instant Pot website says that soaked chickpeas require 20-25 min cooking time, and unsoaked 35-40 min. This is a bit different than the 12 min time for soaked chickpeas listed in your recipe. Is that 12 min cooking time correct?
Hi Erin! I’m so glad the post was helpful for you. 🙂 The problem I’ve encountered with the Instant Pot instructions for most things (and I’m not alone in this), is that they are often inaccurate. I’m not sure what’s up with that, but it’s a common issue. I came to the 12 minutes through personal experience, and also from a resource that I’ve turned to many times as a starting point for pressure cooker cooking times. It’s called The Ultimate Pressure Cooker Cooking Time Chart. Good name, huh? 😉 They recommend anywhere between 9-15 minutes for soaked chickpeas, using a natural pressure release. I’ve found that a quick release is not a great idea for most things in the Instant Pot that have a lot of water, because the release can spray a ton of liquid out and get caught in the valve. Anyway..that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. Hope that helps! 🙂
Hey Beth! Thank you for the quick reply. I am new to my Instant Pot and this is very helpful to know from someone with more experience than I. Thank you for the great resource and for saving me from trial and error. Much appreciated!
Hi, I just tried with 25 minutes and they turned out just perfect.
I guess it also depends on the type and age of the chickpeas. Mine were very hard, and wouldn’t be ready after 2 hours on the stove.
Hi Laura! So glad it worked so well for you. For sure, the type and age of the chickpeas are a factor. That’s what makes it so hard to give definitive cooking times for beans.
First thing I’ve done from your site and first thing in the IP. I soaked my chickpeas overnight and I’m sure put in way too much water when I cooked them (I assume the 3″ guideline is how much water is above the top of the peas?). Anyway, they turned out really well and I have loads if Aquafaba!
Hi – I just got my IP & tried this as my second recipe. I had soaked the chickpeas, then froze them before I got the Pot. I couldn’t find anything that talked about the pressure time if they were frozen, so I just rinsed them to defrost a little & followed your instructions. After 20 minutes NPR I turned the release valve & water started shooting out, so I closed it & left another 10 min or so. They came out too soft, so maybe freezing isn’t a good idea?
Hi Anne! First question, how long did you cook the soaked chickpeas?
12 minutes on the IP timer.
Hi Beth. Glad to find your hysterical post. I googled “Cooking garbanzos in an instant pot, and got you. Thanks, Google. The reason I did was, I’ve been buying Eden beans by the case when I could get them or, internet mail. That store closed. I decided a few days ago to buy some from the bulk department at another store.
I’m really irritated because first I soaked them over night; Then started to cook them according to instructions. It’s been hours now and I’ll never cook beans on the stove top again. Finally they are soft enough to use. I don’t even care how much they cost but, certainly more reasonable than by the can or by the case.
Thanks for giving me a laugh. I relate to doing the math to make comparisons. Makes me nuts. In any case, I have 2 pressure cookers and don’t use them. I’ve been toying with the idea of getting an Instant Pot for some time now so, you have encouraged me to get serious and make a decision. Thanks so much, Lynn
You’re making the math and the comparison much more complicated than necessary. Just compare the cost per oz for whatever you are comparing. You’re canned beans: $3 / 27oz = $0.11 per oz, the rehydrated beans cost you $4.22 / 72oz = $0.06 per oz. Using your numbers it appears that the garbanzos gain 2.67 times their dried weight after cooking. I bought some dried garbanzos today in the bulk food section of a nearby small locally owned store for $1 a pound. Assuming that they too expand 2.67 times, they should yield 430z for a cost of $0.02 per oz. Next time you want to calculate the cost of rehydrated dried beans just buy a pound of dried beans and cook them. Then reweigh them after cooking and draining and then simply divide the amount you paid for the pound of dried beans by the the weight of the rehydrated beans in order to get the cost per oz for the rehydrated beans.
^^^ Aaaaand after using the above methodology, you end up with the same conclusion as the original post – dried chickpeas are more economical than canned. #mansplaining
YES
He’s not “mansplaining,” he’s absolutely right.
Mansplaining.. it doesn’t matter that some might find his proposed method easier or better or just more appealing. It wasn’t a correction, it was a wholly unnecessary “improvement” with an unnecessary explanation, as if the OP was wrong,, Basically saying, “you’re right, but you can do better, and I’m the one to tell you how.” Mansplaining.
I guess I can weigh in here since I’m not a man? You can’t use the weight of dried beans in a direct comparison to canned because you are not considering the water you will add to the dried to reconstitute them. The comparison you’re after is the price per ounce of canned beans vs COOKED dried beans, because in one case you are including the weight of the water in the beans, and in the other, you are adding almost 3x the weight of the beans in added water at the end. Your canned beans would only be about 5oz. dehydrated. One way of doing that math is above OR you can compare the amount of dried, cooked beans it takes to reach the same volume of canned (about 3/4c, give or take, in my experience.) You were less mansplained than mathsplained. You are right about the fact that dried is heaper, but your conclusion isn’t supported by your method.
There’s one element that you all seem to be forgetting in calculating the cost of cooking dried beans: the value of the time required. There are more ways to determine the value of one’s time than I can go into in this comment. The easiest is to use the wage rate you earn at your job, but for simplicity’s sake, I will just assume a $15/hour value (and say I think that is low). If you spend 5 minutes prepping this recipe as it states, and another 5 minutes cleaning up your Instant Pot afterward, that adds (10÷60) × $15 or $2.50 to the cost of preparing your dried beans. Add that to the direct cost of the dried beans, and you have $5, the same as the cost of the canned beans. You could mitigate that by decreasing the value of your time or by cooking larger batches of dried beans at a time, but unless your time is worth less than minimum wage and you really need 5 pounds of cooked beans at the end of the day, the total cost of preparing dried beans is going to end up being just about the same as that of canned beans. You aren’t going to save any material amount of money by cooking your own beans. You MAY get more satisfaction by doing so, however, and that has a value as well, but generally, you’re breaking even, at best.
He’s not mansplaining. He’s right. Math is not hard, but Americans is so stubbornly clinging to an archaic measuring system. Get with the program and convert to metric units! That way your children won’t be left behind in the dust!
I agree with Steve. The math that Steve put forth is easy. The comparison in the blog post hurt my head, and I would still have ended up doing the simpler (for me) math like Steve did.
I do plan on making chickpeas in the Instant Pot, which is what brought me to this page, and now, thanks to that search, I’ve found some other cool recipes here as well. They look as if they will serve me well for my new initiative, Meatless Mondays, so thanks, Beth! 🙂
You are all wrong. No one has included the cost of the water and the cost of the fuel used.😀
Her method is making price comparison more complicated and confusing for people. What if you want to compare a 50 oz can or the big 111 oz can from Costco to the other two? How are you going to figure out how many drained 50 oz cans are equal to 2.5 lbs of re-hydrated dried beans? I want people to understand how to EASILY make price comparisons.
Steve, I think you can figure it out in a similar way that the author has here. Different approach, comparable results.
I know that Eden brand beans are a lot more, but I love how they taste. They are cooked with kombu and their cans are BPA free. But now that I have an Instant Pot I can cook BPA free beans with kombu myself. Thanks for the info on cooking them.
Regarding the value of dried beans vs. canned, certainly it’s cheaper to buy dried. It’s EVEN MORE cost effective if you buy BPA-free canned beans (I’m worried about BPA lined cans as it’s been shown to mess with your thyroid). A large BPA-free can of beans is nearly $6 here in Canada. Dried beans, rehydrated with a pressure cooker is BPA free – that’s a win! Thanks for these instructions Beth
Wow, you thought long and hard about this. I think maybe a little bit *too* hard. Easier terms might be this:
2.5 lbs net weight of canncd beans(approximately) costs $5 which is $2 pound for canned beans, (or 3/4 of that if you get the beans for $.75 instead of $1/can, so $1.50 pound)
compared to
2.5 lbs net weight of dried beans costs $2.50 which is $1/pound for dried beans.
My costs are different but even more savings. I buy my store brand dried beans, which are $1.19 and I’m okay with non organic for dried beans. So, for me, it’s less than $.50/pound for dried.
The canned beans I buy are Bush’s Best Low Sodium which are $2.39 a can, so $4.75 pound after draining. Biiiig difference for me.
I definitely went in-depth on this one, but it was because I couldn’t find anything else online that spelled it out the way my brain needed it to, so I thought maybe there were others like me out there. It’s funny how everyone processes this question differently, because when I read your easier terms my head started hurting. 🙂 In the end, the answer is, cooking from scratch costs WAY less! Woo hoo!
You mentioned that you obtained your cooking time from a Pressure Cooker Cooking Time Chart. Did you adjust your time to account for the fact that the Instant Pot cooks at 11.6 PSI? The times in the chart are for 15 PSI stove top cookers. The chart suggests increasing times by 20% for 12 PSI pots.
Hi Jack! I have found that the cooking times listed online or even in the Instant Pot book are so inconsistent that I tend to just go with the lowest end of the recommended cooking time and adjust from there. So for me, when I list the cooking time for the chickpeas, I’ve tested it several times using my Instant Pot and have found it to give consistently good results. That said, there are other variables at play, such as water hardness/softness, age and size of the chickpeas, etc, so as much as I’d love to guarantee that the times are spot-on, it isn’t foolproof. Makes cooking an adventure sometimes. 🙂
I am new to the Instant Pot but not to cooking dried beans. I soaked my pound of garbanzos overnite and put in the IP. It looked like that was too much so I took out about 1/4 of the dried beans. I added 3 inches of water and set time for 12min. Then I let it rest for 15 min. When I released the steam, it spit it all over the walls, etc. And finally, my beans were mush. Where do I start correcting my problems? I am used to putting the soaked beans in a crock pot to cook.
There are two accepted approaches for rehydrating chickpeas/garbanzo beans. One is to soak them in cold water for at least 8 hrs (rehydration time is actually a function of how big the beans are but 8 hrs is a good average number and 12 hrs would not hurt them). You can now pressure cook them (covered with 1″ of water and the water filling your pressure cooker to not more 1/3 full) for 10 minutes at 15psi and then let the pressure cooker cool naturally (so that you don’t get liquid sprayed all over the kitchen). This will generally take 20 to 25 minutes. The water does boil in the pressure cooker, it just boils at an elevated temperature. And when it boils the liquid foams due to the dissolved solids and the foam can plug up the steam vent and make trouble for you. So don’t try to do too large of a batch at one time.
The other way is to put dried chickpeas into the pressure cooker and cover them with 1″ of water (with the same caution not to let the water occupy more than 1/3 of the pressure cooker) and cook the dry beans for 10 min at 15psi. Then let them sit in the pressure cooker for 90 minutes to hot soak and fully hydrate. Now you can open the pressure cooker, add water to cover the beans by 1″ and cook them at 15psi for 10 more minutes (plus the 20-25 minutes of natural cool down time). Not you have cooked chickpeas by method two.
It is useful to note that the Instant-Pot does not operate at 15psi like a real pressure cooker. It operates at 10-11 psi so the temperature is lower and it takes longer to cook than in a real pressure cooker. So take note, and try it out. You will find a cook time that works for you, then write it down somewhere where you can find it next time you want to cook garbanzo beans. (also perhaps worth noting is that fresh garbanzos cook in even less time than re-hydrated dried beans.
This thread got me to thinking about how to best remove chickpea skins (for salads or for super smooth hummus), and after a few trials the following process produced good results (though I am sure it could always be better):
Chickpea skins can be loosened by attacking the skin-to-bean bond with an alkaline solution. About half of the skin is made of pectin which can be substantially weakened by a hot solution of baking soda. If you just want to make the skins soft (as opposed to trying to remove them) just cook the chickpeas in a solution of 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda per cup of water. When you boil the water, most of the CO2 from sodium bicarbonate boils off which increases the amount of carbonate in solution relative to bicarbonate and increases the pH from around 8 to around 9. More baking soda produces a more pronounced effect but also affects the flavor. When done cooking you will find whisps of skin floating in the cooking liquid, but if you make it into hummus the skins will totally disappear (I use an Indian wet grinder to make hummus and the result is totally creamy after 40 minutes between the stones).
If you want to remove the skins completely and not just soften them, first hot soak the dry chickpeas for 15 minutes (boil water, add dry chickpeas – water should fully cover the chickpeas by 1/2″ – put on the top, turn off the heat and wait 15 minutes). Then boil the chickpeas in a solution of 1/4t of baking soda per cup of water for 5 minutes. Strain and chill in cold water. Using your fingers slip the skins off of the chickpeas and flush them out of the pan/bowl. Repeat the rinse several times to get all of the skins. Soak the now skinless chickpeas for at least 8 hours (up to 12). Now you can steam (20 min for average size chickpeas), boil, or pressure cook the chickpeas to whatever level of doneness you desire (times will depend on the size and age of the chickpeas and how long you soaked them after removing the skins). Done right, I have found that this will result in splitting less than 5% of the chickpeas in the process.
I observed that going directly to boiling dry chickpeas in soda water resulted in the skins tending to come off everywhere except around the little beak at the top of the chickpea and it often left a strand of attached skin running half way around the bean that was removable but was more trouble than I wanted to deal with. This behavior stimulated me to try a hot soak before introducing the soda. I first tried 10 minutes, which was not enough to make it easy to get all of the skin off. High soda concentrations tended to completely break down the skin everywhere except around the beak area where I wanted it to come clean. The solution (no pun intended) was to drop the soda concentration down to 1/4t per cup, which softened the skins but did not completely dissolve them. As a result, when you rub the bean or squeeze it between your fingers, the skin comes off as a single sheet, pulling with it the skin around the beak so that everything is then clean. If I further increased the hot soak time to 20 minutes I found that the chickpeas tended to split more often (up from 2-5% to 10-15% when the skins were rubbed off), so this is an area where somebody else may be able to improve this process.
The range of soda concentrations is between 1/8t per cup and 1t per cup of water and the boiling times range from 2 minutes to 8 minutes so run a few tests to decide where you want to operate. Since you hot soak the chickpeas before you boil them and rinse them after you remove the skins and before you eat them, the amount of sodium in the baking soda is not anything you should worry about. You will put more sodium in when you salt them than will ever find its way into the chickpeas in the de-skinning process.
The photo below is a batch of chickpeas that were hot soaked, then boiled in a solution of baking soda (1/4t per cup of water), then had the skins slipped off. They are shown soaking in pure water to fully hydrate them before steaming.
Very cool Doc, thank you. I buy 24 Mantra Organic split chickpeas to make tempeh. I love their size, half the size of garbanzos, they make very tasty tempeh. However, I’ve wanted to use soybeans and I’ve gone thru a laborious process with no real success at splitting garbanzos. Tried a hand grinder, then a electric and it doesn’t really come out very well. And split small garbanzos are just not available in the U.S. Then the hardest part is having to pick out the skins.
I will try this with the garbanzos. I could use your method then let them dry then crack them. Thanks again for the idea.
Go to your local Indian market and buy a bag of channa dal which are small chickpeas that are already split.
What size Instant Pot is this recipe recommended for? I have a 6 qt, which I believe is the standard size. Will 1 lb of beans fit in the 6 qt?
A six quart PC will accommodate 1 lb of beans. Just be sure you have sufficient water in the pot (enough to cover the beans by at least an inch and still be less than have full). A teaspoon of oil in the pot will help cut down on protein foaming which can push liquid out of the relief valve and make a mess.
What is the minimum sized Instant Pot needed for one pound of dried garbonzo beans? I have a large traditional pressure cooker but it’s very difficult/cumbersome to clean and I’m considering an Instant Pot for that reason. I’d like the smallest I can get away with to make cleanup and storage easy.
Thanks!!
This page sure takes a lot of scrolling for such a simple recipe.
A tablespoon of vinegar or the juice of half a lime will also help with the gas on soaking, btw. 😉
Thank you!
Found you through google search, and so glad! I do the same thing-worry about doing something for so long, that by the time I get around to doing it, i either worry about it not being as good as I imagined, or be even hard that I imagined, lol. The entire crux of my procrastination, lol.
Just starting to discover the joys of the Instant Pot,now that I’ve gotten over my fears of pressure cookers. Had a friend get major burns all over his body from a stovetop accident.
Hi new to IP so just a few clarification questions. I soaked two large ball jars with chickpeas which came out to about 7 cups soaked. Since I didn’t measure (dried) ahead of time I was confused about the water to soaked chickpea ratio. When I put all 7 cups of soaked chickpead in I could only add about 1 inch of water above the line of the chickpeas without hitting the max fill line. I have the 6 quart duo and it looks like you are using the 8 quart. Since in your recipe you recommend adding 3-4 inches above the chickpeas. Does that mean you have to split this batch into two separate 12 min cooking sessions?
Thanks
Not only is it cheaper to use dried beans, but I think the taste and texture is better than canned beans. I found your page looking for the time to cook dried chickpeas in the Instant Pot (thank you!). Looking forward to exploring more of your posts.
Trigger warning: more mansplaining
If you don’t want to do math, don’t do math. Just type your equation in a google search box:
“$2.50 / 4 pounds 8 oz” returns 1.22479035 U.S. dollars / kg
“$3.00 / 1 pound 11 oz” returns 3.91932911 U.S. dollars / kg
12 minutes turned mine into blended mush I couldn’t use for hummus. I had tried because 9 minutes on another site before this and it wasn’t quite long enough. Please test someone else…. I think 10 minutes
Thanks very much for doing the math. I recently purchased an instant pot equivalent and was somewhat discouraged by the price of dried garbanzo beans. Now I feel better about cooking dried garbanzos.
You’re very welcome, Steve. Although based on the other comments I am not sure how accurate my math is. 🙂 I think it’s safe to say that it’s cheaper/less waste to cook from dried, even if the method to get to that conclusion is up for debate.
Chickpeas are under $1 at your local bulk bin store (Winco over on the Westcoast, December 2018).
Let me do the math for you.
1 can of chickpeas drained = 9 oz.
Using your same yield (15oz dry chickpeas = 64.125 oz wet): 1 lb dry chickpeas ~ 68 oz drained.
In other words, $1 for 68 oz. Now since each can is 9oz, we’re making the equivalent of 68/9, or 7.5 cans for $1, which works out to 13.2 cents.
So the comparison comes down to:
1 can store bought chickpeas = $1
1 can we make ourselves = $0.13
Well, almost. Depending on where you live, the power to run the pot for 30 min (~500 Watt Hours) will cost somewhere between $.06 and $0.20 which is not insignificant when you only spend $0.13 for the raw chickpeas.
If you pre-soak your beans, cooking time is only 13 minutes, plus about 10-15 minutes for bringing the Instant Pot to temp, a fifty percent reduction of your estimate,
“which is not insignificant when you only spend $0.13 for the raw chickpeas.”
REPLY
Great site, and thanks for the recipe. I’d like to draw everyone’s Attention to the environmental benefits of choosing dried beans over canned. No extracting of metal ores, production of metal, less weight involved in shipping using petrochemicals, and less packaging. Happier planet. Boom.
You certainly went around the block to get across the street on this one.
2 minutes of Google, https://www.seriouseats.com/2014/04/is-there-a-ratio-for-converting-between-dried.html
would have told you that a 15 oz can ($1, according to you), yields about 1½ cups of chickpeas, one pound of dried chickpeas equals 3 cups of dried beans,and 7 cups of cooked chickpeas.
That means one dollar will buy you 1½ cups of canned beans or 7 cups of cooked non-organic beans. That makes canned nearly FIVE times as expensive.
That same dollar will also buy 2-1/3 cups of organic dried beans (using your $3/pound assertion), although that’s comparing apples to oranges, because I’m sure that organic canned beans are probably a bit more expensive, as well.
Alternatively, you could have just bought a dollar’s worth of dried beans (organic OR non-organic), cooked them, and then compared the yield to one can.
I prefer the first method, because it doesn’t involved opening any cans…
I hope that this pest doesn’t earn me the same wrath of the defensive feministas that Steve’s earned him, above.
I love this post! Everything so nicely explained. From my experience, beans that stay hard after prolonged cooking are just old. If possible, discard them and start over with fresh dried beans. Beans soften faster when you add baking powder to the pot – 1/2 to 2 tsp. When cooking chickpeas for making hummus, I always add baking soda. (I skip baking soda when cooking beans for general use because I have read that it interferes with our uptake of thiamine. I don’t know if that’s accurate)
Here’s a shocker for you, Carol. BPA is (was) a component of PLASTIC production. ALL cans are “BPA-free.” Just like all vegetable products are “cholesterol-free.” I always get a laugh out of labels on vegetarian products that announce that they’re “cholesterol-free.” No kidding. Really?
Neil, you may want to google “BPA can lining.”
Hi Beth,
Thanks for a hilariously worded shout out to chick peas. Your brain scares me in that it works too much like mine. It took me a longtime to get to the bottom of this blog for the recipe for IP chickpeas inthat I had to visit your secret weapon recipe before I could go on and almost got diverted from there to another page. I was afraid I would never find my way back. But there is one thing I have to ask. What is aquafaba? I can hardly wait to find out. Thanks again, I love reading your words.
Ah, Keith … You are forgetting the most important element of all — TASTE! In all of my years (decades, actually!) of cooking with canned chick peas, I can only say, that I had cooked dried chickpeas from a big communal bowl in a restaurant in the south of France about 5 years ago. They were just dressed with salt, pepper, lemon juice and olive oil. They were incredible. The bowl travelled from table to table in the restaurant and I kept going back for more. Why? Because I’d never tasted better chickpeas in my life before. When I got home, I tried to replicate the dish — Not nearly as good. Many years later, I got an Instant Pot. On a whim, I decide to try cooking dried chickpeas in it, having tried to do the same with my grandma’s pressure cooker, with varied results. Well…. those chickpeas were so incredibly good that, now, I cook a cup or two of them every week or so… sometimes with no recipe or meal in mind (unusual for me!) … I just like having them to hand. Sometimes they go into curry, sometimes into hummus (the best hummus EVER!!) and sometimes they are just dressed in a bowl with salt, pepper, lemon juice and olive oil. Sublime.
Taste. For some of us, it’s all about that! 🙂 Peace…
what cooking instructions do you use? Time, water level etc..and the simple recipe sounds delicious!