I cook up chickpeas, aka garbanzo beans, in my Instant Pot at least once a week.
Mainly I use them in my spinach salad. Other times I use chick peas to make veggie burgers, bean salad, or bake in the oven for a crispy treat.
One of the main reasons I use dry chickpeas is because they’re inexpensive. The precooked garbanzo beans that come in a can are pretty cheap too, less than $1. Dry chickpeas are usually sold in one pound bags at Walmart or other grocery stores for around $2.
Here’s a tip. Check out the international section of your grocery store. There are probably larger bags at a lower price. I buy bags of chickpeas at Fruiticana, a produce store that also sells a lot of East Indian foods. I always check the dry bean aisle just in case chickpeas are on sale. They come in a four pound bag, and are currently on sale for $3.88.
Before the coronavirus price increase, sometimes I’d buy this bag on sale for $1.99 to $2.49. As recent as last year! The regular price is $5.99, but if it’s on sale, I grab one.
Other chickpea benefits
The main benefit of chickpeas might be their low price, but their nutritional value makes them a great choice for many reasons.
The biggest reason to me is that I don’t eat meat, so I have to get my protein from other sources. I keep several varieties of dry beans and lentils in my cupboard. Stored properly, in an airtight container (not the bag they came in), they can last for years.
Chickpeas can keep your appetite under control and help with weight management. I started eating more chickpeas when I needed to bring my weight down.
They help keep blood sugar under control and might help lower cholesterol.
All things that are important to me.
If you’d like to know more about the benefits of eating chickpeas, check out this article: https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/chickpeas-nutrition-benefits
What about taste? Chickpeas have a nutty, buttery taste. Yum! I often scoop a handful to snack on.
Though, I admit, it’s not quite the same thing as a handful of M&Ms!
How to cook chickpeas in the Instant Pot
The first thing you need to cook chickpeas in an Instant Pot – is the Instant Pot!
Hopefully you have one in your kitchen. On hot, summer days when you don’t want to turn on the oven, the Instant Pot won’t heat up your kitchen and the rest of your house.
Here’s the 7 in 1 model I use. (Disclosure: I’m an Amazon associate. If you click the link and make a purchase, I’ll receive a small commission for the referral.)
Pour the chickpeas into a colander and run your fingers through them looking for stones or anything that shouldn’t be in there. I remove ugly garbanzo beans and the ones that split.
I usually cook a cup of dried chickpeas. They triple in size, so that gives me about three cups of cooked chickpeas.
Rinse them under cold water.
Check again for any beans you want to remove. Deformed beans seem to show up better when they’re wet!
Put them inside the Instant Pot and add water. Seeing as how they triple in size, I cover the chickpeas with about two inches of water.
Put the lid on the Instant Pot and make sure it’s in the sealing position.
Press the Manual button, and using the +/- button, set the timer for 38 minutes.
Yeah, weird number. I always go with 38. Anywhere between 35 and 40 minutes is good for cooking chickpeas.
A few seconds after you’ve set the timer, the Instant Pot display shows “On”. In about ten minutes you’ll hear a lot of hissing noises as the Instant Pot pressurizes. Once the pot has pressurized, the venting seal pops up in the lid and the display again shows 38.
After the timer runs down to zero, the Instant Pot beeps to let you know it’s done. The Instant Pot now goes into warming mode and the timer counts up to let you know how long it’s been warming.
Leave it alone until the sealing valve drops down, about twenty minutes later. That’s called a natural release. I leave the beans alone until I’m ready to do something with them. Usually I leave the chickpeas soaking for an hour or longer.
When ready to do something with the chickpeas, remove the Instant Pot lid. Use oven mitts to remove the interior pot, and dump them into the colander to drain and cool.
There you go! Pretty easy to cook chickpeas in the Instant Pot.
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