How to cook chickpeas in an instant pot | Instant Pot Chickpeas soaked

Last updated on April 12th, 2021 at 07:45 am

How to cook chickpeas in an instant pot - step-by-step recipe to make soft chickpeas in Instant Pot from dried chickpeas. Great for making hummus, salads, and curries! Cooking this protein-rich nutritious legume now got easier.

How do you like to eat Chickpeas? I know most of you are gonna say Hummus or in a salad or in a curry. And some of you might even add Chickpea Pilaf to the list, which I'm not a fan of.

If you ask me, I'll most definitely be like "Sundal!", that's my favorite way to eat chickpeas. Sundal - is a South Indian Salad and is regularly a part of evening snacks and I love it. Next to Sundal, I think I would like chickpeas in a super-rich and thick curry for rotis.

This recipe is to just make plain or salted chickpeas to be used in making hummus or to be used in salads, curries, pilafs, etc.. It is just so much easier to cook chickpeas once you get used to it, you'll forgo canned chickpeas altogether. Less packaging and fewer tins to landfills right? So moving on to the highly debatable question...

See Also:

Quick and easy Split Pea (yellow) soup/curry recipe

To soak or to not soak?

I would love to dump the chickpeas into the Instant Pot while making Pilaf or curry or just cooking them plain and get the Instant Pot working. It would save me some time, well if not time, it would come together in just a single step and I don't have to "plan ahead" to soak them. But I've tried to dump them and it just doesn't work. The Instant Pot surely cooks dried chickpeas really well even without soaking.

Although it doesn't work because there was always a chemically taste in the cooked chickpeas whenever I tried to cook it without soaking. There has been a lot of studies and debates if you should discard the soaked water or not. Whatever the latest conclusions are, I prefer soaking the chickpeas, discarding the water and then cooking them.

It is generally better to soak beans; soaking makes the beans more digestible. And it is said that the soaking process yanks the gas causing agents out of the chickpeas. I don't know if that's true, but when you have soaked the chickpeas, you can see the soaked water has changed color and there is some mild but annoying odor. That odor overpowers the chickpeas when it isn't cooked without soaking. So for the abovesaid reasons, I suggest you soak them before you cook 'em, without a question!

Serving Suggestions:

The possibilities of serving or using up these Instant Pot Chickpeas soaked are endless of course. My favorite ways are :

• to make the perfect Hummus
• use them to make Sundal (a South Indian Salad)
• to add it in Mixed Vegetable Pilafs
• to make Chickpea Curry
• use it in salads with arugula, feta and whatever comes to my mind lol!

Nutrition of Cooked Chickpeas:

Cooked Chickpeas are protein-rich, calorie-dense beans packing approximately 14g of protein per 100g of chickpeas. Which makes it a pretty cool beans to add it to meals especially when we're working out. Chickpeas leave us full for a long time and it is so fulfilling. Check out some interesting health benefits of Chickpeas in this article I found.

See also:

Instant Pot Mushroom and Coconut Milk Pilaf

Storing cooked chickpeas:

Cooked chickpeas store well in the refrigerator for about 3 days. To store 'em drain the water after cooking it and transfer it to an airtight container and put it in the refrigerator. To reuse, you can microwave it for salads or use it directly in your Pilafs or Curries.

Freeze the cooked chickpeas by storing it in an airtight container and freeze them. It stays good in the refrigerator for about a month. To use it, thaw it overnight and microwave. But if you're gonna use it to make curries, you can directly dump them from freezer to saucepan or an Instant Pot.

Quick Tip: Use the water used to cooking Chickpeas to make Aquafaba!

Special Diets:

Chickpeas are, goes without saying, vegan, vegetarian, lactose-free and gluten-free. And this whole soak and cook method makes it more digestible. Chickpeas are low GI, making it a great food for people with diabetes or for anyone who is on a healthy diet. Also, Chickpeas are low FODMAP up to to ¼ cups. So overall a great food!

Variations and Substitutions:

If I haven't convinced you yet and you still wanna cook them without soaking, set the Instant Pot to PRESSURE COOK mode for 90 minutes.

On the other hand, you like the idea of the soak and cook method but you don't have much time, you can use the QUICK SOAK method which is added the chickpeas to boiling water, remove from heat, cover with a lid and let it soak for 1 hour. Drain and discard soak water and cook as usual.

Okay, now you're thinking why not use this Quick Method all the time rather than soaking the beans for 8 hours, trust me, 8 hours soak time is always the best way.

See also:

Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes with roasted garlic

What is a perfectly cooked Chickpea?

Perfectly cooked chickpeas should definitely be tender but not mushy. Like you should be able to press it between your thumb and finger and mash it. But it shouldn't already have mashed and started to fall apart in the Instant Pot.

How to cook dried chickpeas:

As mentioned above, this recipe is for the soak and cook method. So this is a two-step process: Soak and Cook. But first, let's see what all you'll need to cook chickpeas using this method:

• Chickpeas / Garbanzo Beans - 1 cup
• Water - 6 cups
• Rock Salt - 1 tsp

Soaking Chickpeas:

If you're having second thoughts on whether soaking is an unwanted step, you might wanna scroll up to see more about what I've written about soaking. So, when you're past that, let's get on to soaking.

• Add 1 cup chickpeas to a clean bowl.
• Add 3 cups water over it and cover with a lid.
• Set it aside and leave them to soak for 8 hours. I usually do it at night before I go to sleep. This way I can cook the chickpeas in the morning. But if you're gonna be making them in the evening for dinner, you can soak in the morning before you step out for work. By the time you're back, it'll be ready to be cooked.
• Anyway, after 8 hours, pass the chickpeas through a colander to drain the soaked water. Discard the water. Wash the chickpeas once under the tap.

See also:

Instant Pot super simple mixed vegetable Biryani

How to make mung bean Sprouts at home

Quick Boiled Peanuts in Instant Pot

Cooking Chickpeas in Instant Pot:

Now that you have your chickpeas soaked and drained, let's cook them!

• Place the Instant Pot Bowl into the Instant Pot.
• Tip in the soaked chickpeas into the Instant Pot.
• Add the salt and 3 cups of water to it.
• Cover with Instant Pot lid and SEAL the knob.
• Set the Instant Pot to PRESSURE COOK mode for 10 minutes.
• After the timer goes off, quick release to let off steam.
• Tender and perfectly cooked Instant Pot Chickpeas is ready!

Here's a video recipe:

Notes:

• USE THE SERVING SIZE ADJUSTOR ABOVE TO ALTER THE INGREDIENT MEASUREMENTS FOR AS MANY NUMBER OF PEOPLE YOU LIKE.
• I use a 6-quart Instant Pot. Cook time may or may not vary for other models/sizes.
• I usually soak it for 8 hours and the 10 minute cook time is in accordance with the soak time. If you soak it for less or more hours, you might need to adjust the cooking time accordingly.
• I recommend that you soak it for at least 6 hours.
• If you're using salt, the resulting chickpeas would be great to eat just on its own or you can use it in salads. However, if using in curries, you might wanna adjust the amount of salt being added to the curry. Or skip salt while cooking the chickpeas.
• Cooked chickpeas stay good in the refrigerator for about 2-3 days and it freezes well for up to a month in an airtight container.
• Finally, a great thing about cooking chickpeas is you get to use the water used for cooking Chickpeas to make Aquafaba.

Made this? Got doubts? Let me know what you think in the comments below!