I love the versatility of garbanzo beans (also known as chick peas)! You can put them in a salad, roast them in the oven to make a quick snack, have them in a bowl or even crush them to make a spread or burgers. Beans of any sort are great to keep in the pantry, and if you are trying to save money on groceries, a fantastic way to do that is to buy beans dry! They keep a long time, and they are easy to prepare and freeze if you want to keep them on hand. Plus, if you have concerns about the sodium content in canned beans, dried is the way to go! Canned or not, you definitely need beans in your diet, so I decided to do a quick "how to" post to help you out.

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How To Cook [Garbanzo] Beans | www.maplealps.com

This how-to really applies to any bean and there are several ways to cook them.

Step One: Sort
Check your beans for any broken fellows or other debris or stones you may find in a dry bag of beans. You will want to get all of that out.

Step Two: Rinse
Pretty self-explanatory.

Step Three: Soak
Now, soaking is optional actually! The thing about soaking is that it will cut your actual cooking time down (Saving you on gas/electricity - whatever your stove runs on), and it will also make beans less of a "musical fruit," as it allegedly helps break down some of the indigestible sugars that cause flatulence. I honestly don’t notice any difference between soaking or not. The easiest way to soak beans is overnight. Just make sure water is about 2-3 inches above them and sleep the night away. Waiting is easier then. You can also do a quick soak by putting them in a pot with water, bringing it to a boil, and then taking them off the heat and let them soak for an hour.

Step Four: Cook

Cooking Garbanzo Beans on the Stovetop

Again, make sure there is 2-3 inches of water covering your beans and bring the pot to a boil - slowly though. Bring the pot to a simmer, and stir occasionally, scraping off any foam that on the surface (you won't get too much with garbanzos). You will know your beans are done when they are tender (you can mash or poke them with a fork - or eat one like I tend to do....hehe)

Cooking Garbanzo Beans in the Slow Cooker

3 cups garbanzo beans
7 cups water

Cover and cook on high in your slow cooker for 4 hours, or on low for 8 to 9 hours - or until tender.

Cooking Garbanzo Beans in the Instant Pot (My favourite method):

3 cups garbanzo beans
7 cups water

If you are doing them from dry garbanzo beans, add the beans and water to your inner pot and set your pot to high pressure for 45 minutes. If your beans are soaked, set your pot to high pressure for 12 minutes.

Let pressure release naturally for 10 minutes and move steam release to venting to release the remaining pressure.

Step Five: Store
Beans will stay good in the refrigerator for several days, but I like to keep them in the freezer for easy and quick access. You can put them in little bags or freezer-friendly containers and they will stay several months in the freezer. I suppose you could can them as well, but I personally like the freedom with how many I want to use with the freezing method. I don't always use an entire cans worth.

Tip: If you want, portion them out into portions of 1.5 cups - about the amount in a can.

Yay! You are now ready to save time (with some planning, of course) and money!

How do you cook your beans? What do you cook with them?

Recipes with Beans!