A Healthier You, One Step at a Time

How to cook your own chickpeas!

How to cook your own chickpeas!: IMG 8776
Soaking overnight

Have been wanting to cook chickpeas instead of using canned for some time,  They taste fresher and it saves you $$  Finally I decided to soak overnight, started with 1 c chickpeas:3 c water, no salt

This forced me to cook them in my instapot the next day, it was so easy.  I don’t know why I procrastinated.  I rinsed them, put them in the instapot with the same water ratio and pressure cooked for 20 minutes.

 

 

How to cook your own chickpeas!: IMG 8781
Cooke in Instapot for 20 minutes

Don’t they look great!  And they smelled so yummy, I snacked on some right there!   I thought that I had cooked way too much but didn’t realize that I would use them up so quickly!

Have wanted to make roasted chickpeas as a healthy snack for some time.  Found the perfect recipe:  2 cups chickpeas, 2 T vinegar, 1 T olive oil, 1 tsp dijon mustard, supposed to have 1 pinch salt, I made mine unsalted.  Placed in a pre-heated 400 F degree oven on a cookie sheet, no greasing.  The recipe suggests baking for 1 hr, tossing them every 10 min.  I was far too impatient for this and tossed them every 15 min but by 30 min, they looked roasted and I took them out.

 

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Roasted Chickpeas

They tasted great, but some of them were not crisp and slightly soft so I put them in the oven for longer, next time I would check them more often and take the browned chickpeas out as they cook unevenly in my oven.. Was very pleased with the flavour and  will do this again.

I was on a roll  and proceeded to make a chicken chili  adding 2 cups chickpeas, fortunately that was exactly the amount I had left over..  So I was able to cook an entree with the remaining chickpeas depriving myself of the opportunity to refrigerate for up to 5 days or freeze in 2 cup portions.

 

How to cook your own chickpeas!: IMG 8787
Chicken Chili with chickpeas

I won’t tell you the recipe because it became a truly signature dish using my favourite allium vegetables.  Perhaps it was a bit spicy; for my partner but just perfect for me.  Here’s a photo of that meal!

So don’t hesitate, save yourself some $$ and cook your own chickpeas!